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Art has always been a part of my life. As a young child growing up in Jacksonville, Florida my family vacations were always spent visiting relatives in my parent’s native Iowa. I remember going to my great grand mother’s old Victorian farm house located on the family’s pig farm in a very small rural town. A wonderfully creative woman, she always took me and my sister up to the second floor of her house to rummage through rooms of arts and craft materials she had gathered through years traveling and was now storing in the “empty nest” rooms which were now available for her use only. Well into her 80’s, she was a Cherokee Indian with a flair for color and creativity. She loved to inspire and share her crafts with her grand children. I was always delighted to visit Great Grandma Ressa and work on new art projects. Her early teachings and enthusiasm definitely made and impression on me at a very young age.
I always excelled in art classes during my school years, but decided to focus on a business education as a young man paying his own way through college. After college, I began focusing on artwork as a hobby.
While living in New York City in the mid 90’s, I was privileged to attend classes at the legendary Art Student’s League. The League is an amazing institution to learn from other professional artists in the mist of the vitality and always inspiring City of New York. I furthered my art instruction courses by attending Florida Atlantic University’s Schmidt College of Art in Boca Raton, Florida. Studying under Walter Hnatysh, Professor of Painting, I was inspired and challenged.
In the last 5 years, I have been honored to study with the local artist, Daniel Fiora (an Argentinean sculptor). Daniel’s technical abilities with working with metals and his keen artistic sense have been invaluable in furthering my own artistic endeavors.
Randy Barney
May 2008
Artist Statement:
The human figure is a work of art. It continuously amazes me and holds an unlimited number of expressions and interpretations. The human form is intriguing, mysterious, simple and complex. A life form which molds itself in an ever changing environment called life.
I only wish to capture a moment in time and express a thought or emotion. Sharing our thoughts or emotions with each other is intriguing and gratifying. We can acknowledge our differences and similarities which can lead us to find the strings which bind us all together. By exploring our differences we can also begin to understand ourselves as individuals. Finding these binding strings is comforting and necessary.
The use of cutting, bending and welding metal together to form the human figure gives me great inspiration. Creating the suggestion of the human form from this hard man made material opens the viewer’s eye to look at his/hers’ surrounding world in a different light.
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