Bio

Julia Whitney Barnes is an artist living in Poughkeepsie, NY who works in a variety of media from cyanotypes, watercolor, oil paintings, ceramic sculptures, murals, and site-specific installations. She has exhibited widely in the United States and internationally including the Dorksy Museum, New Paltz, NY; Ely Center of Contemporary Art, New Haven, CT; Woodstock Artists Association & Museum (WAAM), Woodstock, NY; Institute of Contemporary Art, Portland, ME; Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson, NY; Kenise Barnes Fine Art, Kent, CT; and Garvey|Simon NY, New York, NY. She was awarded fellowships from New York State Council on the Arts, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Arts Mid-Hudson, Abbey Memorial Fund for Mural Painting/National Academy of Fine Arts, and the Gowanus Public Art Initiative, among others.  

Born in Newbury, VT, Julia Whitney Barnes spent two decades in Brooklyn, before moving to the Hudson Valley in 2015. She received her BFA from Parsons School of Design and her MFA from Hunter College. Whitney Barnes has created site-specific installations at the Albany International Airport, Albany, NY; Brookfield Place/Winter Garden, New York, NY; Arts Brookfield, Brooklyn, NY, the Wilderstein Sculpture Biennial, Rhinebeck, NY; Shaker Heritage Society, Albany NY; The Trolley Barn/Fall Kill Creative Works, Poughkeepsie, NY; GlenLily Grounds, Newburgh, NY; ArtsWestchester, White Plains, NY; Gowanus Public Arts Initiative, Brooklyn, NY; Space All Over/Fjellerup Bund i Bund & Grund, Fjellerup, Denmark; Lower Manhattan Cultural Council/Sirovitch Senior Center, New York, NY; Brooklyn School of Inquiry, Brooklyn, NY; New York City Department of Transportation, New York, NY; and Figment Sculpture Garden, Governors Island, NY and among other locations. Whitney Barnes was awarded a glass commission for NYC Public Art for Public Schools/Percent for Art that is slated to be completed in 2023. To learn more about the artist visit: www.juliawhitneybarnes.com or @juliawhitneybarnes on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok.  

Statement

In these works on paper, I approach each growing thing with equal importance regardless of whether it is a weed, rare species, wildflower, or cultivated flower. Most works have several species fused into one composition, often to the point where the exact plants depicted are open to interpretation. Each composition starts as a blue and white print onto watercolor paper and then I paint in many layers of color pigment. I am most interested in creating objects that feel both beautiful and mysterious. I want each cyanotype painting to be familiar yet slightly outside of time.  

Cyanotype is a camera-less photographic printing process invented in 1842 by scientist and astronomer, Sir John Hirschel, which produces a cyan-blue print when a non-toxic chemistry-coated surface is exposed to sunlight. Through my use of this medium, I manipulate physical impressions of plants grown locally in my Hudson Valley garden and other nearby areas, along with intricately cutout photographic negatives. Each selected flower is preserved through a pressing process in which I dissect and shape each form—akin to a specimen from a natural history museum—and then lay everything out in massive flat files in my attic studio. Given that sunlight starts the exposure process with cyanotype chemistry, I carefully arrange elaborate compositions at night and utilize long exposures under natural or UV light to create the final prints. Once the unique cyan imagery is fused, I meticulously paint the exposed watercolor paper with multiple layers of watercolor, ink and gouache. Each cyanotype is created by the power of light, inspiring viewers to look at these very recognizable images in new and different ways.

What initially drew you to your medium/media of choice?

Since we moved to the Hudson Valley from Brooklyn seven years ago, my work has been much more focused on the natural world. For the past year I’ve been focused on making works on paper that combine watercolor, gouache, ink, and cyanotype. The process feels like a satisfying marriage of painting, printmaking, collage, digital media, and camera-less photography. As I’ve worked in a myriad of mediums over the past two decades, this current body of work is a culmination of a lot of ideas. Part of my process is growing and pressing plants that I manipulate in the photogram process, and also photograph for source imagery.

I frequently work with the cyanotype process, which is a camera-less photographic printing process invented in 1842 by scientist and astronomer, Sir John Herschel, which produces a cyan-blue print when a non-toxic chemistry-coated surface is exposed to sunlight. The first artist (who was also a botanist) to use it was Anna Atkins. She is cited as the very first female photographer (though made without the use of a camera). She published the book Photographs of British Algae in 1843.

Each selected flower is preserved through a pressing process in which I dissect and shape each form—akin to a specimen from a natural history museum—and then lay everything out in massive flat files in my attic studio. Given that sunlight starts the exposure process with cyanotype chemistry, I carefully arrange elaborate compositions at night and utilize long exposures under natural or UV light to create the final prints. Once the unique cyan imagery is fused, I meticulously paint the exposed watercolor paper with multiple layers of watercolor, ink and gouache.

What aspect of your art do you hope really comes across to your audience?

In these works on paper, I approach each growing thing with equal importance regardless of whether it is a weed, rare species, wildflower, or cultivated flower. Most works have several species fused into one composition, often to the point where the exact plants depicted are open to interpretation. Each composition starts as a blue and white print onto watercolor paper and then I paint in many layers of color pigment. I am most interested in creating objects that feel both beautiful and mysterious. I want each cyanotype painting to be familiar yet slightly outside of time. Each cyanotype is created by the power of light, inspiring viewers to look at these very recognizable images in new and different ways.

Who inspires you in your life, whether it be artistically or otherwise?

When I first saw the 19th century Shaker Gift Drawings, I felt an immediate kinship with them. They remined me of my Pennsylvania Dutch grandmother’s Fraktur calligraphy drawings as well as the tulip quilt that has been in my family for many generations and made by my great-great-great-grandmother in the 1850s. Once I made the connection that the gift drawings originated at the exact same time as the first cyanotypes were being created, I knew I wanted to find a way to bridge these as well as the current Shaker site garden. It’s amazing to think about the (mostly) women who made the gift drawings and how living in a community like the Shakers enabled them time for creative pursuits. Developing this body of work in a non-traditional art viewing site was a huge challenge and I still feel like I could keep adding to these works for many years.

Shaker aesthetic rejected any unnecessary ornamentation. The rare exception is artwork produced during the Era of Manifestations, a spiritual revival which began at the Watervliet South Family in 1837 and spread to other Shaker communities. Spirit drawings were representations of visions and dreams, and often incorporated both natural and fanciful plants. Shaker herbs can thus be understood to embody both their practical and their spiritual values. There is a directness to the link between botany and the cyanotype photogram technique because of the physical plant leaving its mark. The Prussian blue created through the cyanotype process is significant to Shaker culture in that it was considered celestial and meeting houses often featured blue to be connected with heaven.

What keeps you going as an artist? Where do you find that creative drive?

From 2021-2022, I photographed and collected specimens from over 150 plants in the herb garden at Shaker Heritage Society, in Albany, NY, a brief walk from Albany International Airport. The Society is located at the site of the Shakers’ first settlement in the United States, known as Watervliet. Its herb garden pays homage to the significance of the Shakers’ herb cultivation, and seed and medicinal herb industries. With this collection, I produced “Planting Utopia.” This body of work includes two site-responsive installations, one at Albany International Airport, in the first-floor walkway between the south parking garage and ticketing, and one at the nearby Shaker Heritage Society on the interior and exterior of the historic 1856 Drying House. The installations will remain on view through 2023 and a publication will be available late 2022.

Tell us about your primary goal for the future. Has this goal changed over time?

I balance creating intimidate studio works with large public art. I am currently working on my first glass piece that will be permanently installed in a school in Brooklyn through Percent For Art/Public Art for Public Schools. My bucket list project for the past two decades has been to work with a fabricator to make a massive installation for a NYC Subway station. I would also love to work in glass at a larger architectural scale like an airport and create full room environments.