Today we’d like to introduce you to Jamaal Barber.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Jamaal. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I had been doing acrylic painting and watercolors for a few years around the Atlanta area. One day I went to a screen print demo at Binders Art. After seeing the whole process of making a print, it clicked in my mind. I had all kinds of ideas of what I could do with the medium. I bought everything I need to make prints that day and became a printmaker. I picked up relief printing along the way. Not too long after that, I got laid off on my graphic design job. I made the decision to go for it and be a full-time artist. I’ve been a working printmaker ever since.
I found that I was really responding to the process of printing and my work developed into what it is now. One of the big things that happened was joining Atlanta Printmakers Studio. I finally had access to all the equipment to make more, larger prints but more important I got to connect with the community of printmakers. That interaction with other artists, the collaboration and critique was the missing piece the I needed to really take my work to the next level.
Since I’ve focused on printmaking I’ve been in shows all around Atlanta, New York, Chicago, Houston. I’ve worked with Black art in America and the National Black Arts Festival. I just had my first solo show this year at the Southwest Arts Center called Bright Black. I’m now represented by ZuCot Gallery.
Has it been a smooth road?
It was not smooth at all. I spent a lot of time in my basement making work that nobody saw or wanted. I’ve been full time now for about 6 years but 2 of those years I didn’t sell anything! It’s a hard sell to your wife and 2 kids that Daddy really has to spend all his time making art and have nothing to show for it. Thankfully my wife has always supported my dreams and that allowed me to keep going when I really had no good reason to justify it.
On one hand, I was not good enough at making art to support myself. Period. My work was not good enough. That’s a hard thing for a creative person to hear but it was true.
Everything you make is not art. On the other hand, I needed those 2 years of working full time on my craft to be good enough. I was rejected from a lot of shows and I should have been rejected by a lot of shows. I needed more seasoning, experience, and growth. Without that time and effort, I wouldn’t have found my voice in my work.
I don’t go around preaching about divinity and fate but every time I got super low and about to go grab some applications, something happened. It wasn’t big but I would sell 1 thing or get in a show. Just enough to keep going and not give up. I changed my life to support my art. I sacrificed and prioritized until I finally started to be heard. I always focused on the work though. I knew all my goals were based on my work being at a certain level.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the JBarberStudio story. Tell us more about the business.
I’m a printmaker that specializes in relief prints (woodcuts and linocuts), screen printing and mixed media work. My work is about black identity and social commentary. I refer to my work as black propaganda. I’m purposely crafting messages to combat the narratives America promotes to reveal and uplift what I consider to be the black experience.
There are struggle and harshness in being black in the country. There is also a tremendous sense of pride and love in blackness. I speak to all parts of what that means to me. I’m projecting my own messages into the system. My message is power, is beauty, is love, is triumph often because of and in spite of the context of this environment in which we live. I make my own personal work but I’m also starting to focus more on artist collaborations, producing prints with nonprint artists. Printmaking is a great vehicle to merge creative energy and create something greater between the two of us than we would create on our own.
I’m starting grad school in August at Georgia State University. I’m going to get my MFA in printmaking. I’m completely self-taught in printing. I’m going to take the opportunity to push myself and my work in an academic setting. I think I’ll be a better student now thanks to my maturity and confidence I’ve built up over the last few years. I want my work to grow however it’s going to grow. I’m always looking for things to add to my practice.
How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
With the development of technology, I think printmaking will become more special and valuable. All handcrafted things for that matter take on a special meaning when everything is a screen. As digital art and VR start to become more and more mainstream there will be a greater appreciation for us analog warriors in the print studios. You can’t fake the embossing of the press, the smell of the ink, the texture of a fine art print. I’m one of those guys that will hold on to my woodblocks until my last breath. I hope the future is full of prints!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.jbarberstudio.com
- Email: jbarberstudio@gmail.com
- Instagram: @jbarberstudio
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/JBarberArt
- Twitter: @jbarberstudio
Image Credit:
Sierra King, John Stephens
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