Dialogue: Star
Barbara Romain
Los Angeles, California
Dialogue: Star, 2007
Acrylic and collage on canvas
As a legally blind, Jewish visual artist, I was immediately, personally drawn to the concept of the “Speaking Volumes” exhibition. A lifelong painter, I became increasingly inspired by what I could hear, remember, and imagine as I lost my sight. Thus, many of my paintings are weavings of words.
In Dialogue: Star, I collaged pages from books by Ben Klassen, which espouse racist and anti-Semitic views. I then highlighted painted words from the original texts over the pages to form an alternatepositive statement, allowing the viewer to create his/her own poetry. By adding the Star of David, I believe this symbol carries enough positive charge to negate the malignant words.
Reading the Klassen books, I was struck by how much of the writing was repetitive, garbled nonsense. Therefore, I didn’t worry about visually losing some of his words (although I did not deliberately edit). As I worked, I became engrossed in the aesthetic as much as the rhetorical aspect of the work.
I feel that this form of dialogue is particularly appropriate to Jewish culture, which is based on the “word” and interpretation and discussion of texts.
Bio
Barbara Romain is a visual, performing, and teaching artist who earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Philadelphia College of Art (now University of the Arts) and a Master of Fine Arts from Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles. Her award-winning paintings are widely exhibited, and she is the recipient of Artist in Residence awards from the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs and the California Arts Council, as well as a Teaching Artist Fellowship from VSA Arts in Washington, D.C. Diagnosed with a retinal degenerative disease in 1984, Romain is legally blind.