HOW TO WORK WITH THE MATRIARCHS with painter Barbara Campbell Thomas
Barbara Campbell Thomas had a long-established painting practice when, about a decade ago, her mother bought her a sewing machine. Little did she know, but that gift provided her the perfect missing piece to her creative practice.
What draws me to Barbara’s work is the balance between tautness and texture. Her stretched and pieced canvas quilt works pushes back an “all or nothing” perspective on genre. Her work is naturally generative and generous, creating expanses for so much.
In this SEAMSIDE conversation, Barbara and I explore:
① the value of a regular sketchbook practice (even if you don’t draw)
② what even is abstraction
③ how you can detect your matriarchs at work
WHY LISTEN TO THIS EPISODE?
This conversation with Barbara Campbell Thomas explores the profound connections between painting and textiles. Listeners will hear how personal history, especially the influence of matrilineal figures, molds her work, making this episode a compelling narrative about identity, creativity, and artistic expression
REFLECTION PROMPT
Barbara discusses the concept of 'matrilineal abstraction'—how does your own family or cultural heritage influence your creative work? Are there traditions or skills that have been passed down to you that shape your work?
north carolina artist barbara campbell thomas's work combines painting with quilting, overlaying their material vocabularies to create complex formal dialogues that resonate with the details of her own life and the history of each medium. she came relatively late to quilting, which she learned from her mother, but quickly realized its power as an art form traditionally practiced by women to inform and expand the range of painting.
barbara’s paintings have been exhibited in museums and galleries across the united states: at the weatherspoon art museum, the virginia center for contemporary arts, the painting center, the atlanta center for contemporary art, the southeastern center for contemporary art and the north carolina museum of art. she has been an artist-in-residence at the hambidge center, the skowhegan school for painting and sculpture, the elizabeth murray artist residency and the virginia center for creative arts. she is a recipient of a north carolina artists fellowship.
barbara campbell thomas is a professor and chair of the art department at unc greensboro.