Biography
Peruvian native Maria Baraybar came to the United States at the age of 8 with white sand in her shoes and a head full of questions. The youngest of an immigrant family moving around in the US shaped a young Baraybar’s sensitivities. Trying to answer those questions through poetry, she found her self-expression through the Visual Arts.  A coping mechanism soon turned into a lifeline. Eschewing conventional art school studies, Baraybar opted for broader education, embracing non-traditional channels to creativity.

Baraybar’s work has been featured in several NYC galleries and is currently on view at Brooklyn’s Nu Hotel. She lives and works in Brooklyn, New York, with her partner Allison Tray and their cats Julio and Gertie.

Artist Statement
The inspiration behind Artie’s Red Shoe Diaries came out of a personal situation. I’ve had to endure the difficult process of becoming a naturalized U.S. citizen all my life in the states. 20 yrs of hiding in the shadows with an unresolved immigration case left me with one choice: survival. Survival became more important than self, more important than happiness, more important than my dreams. Faced with my life’s own unique set of absurd trials and tribulations, I created an imaginary friend named Artie. This genderless character became my own life force. These unique experiences opened up the opportunity to document the often “peculiar” way of life in suburban America while exploring the juxtaposition of absurdity and meaning through travelogue note-type drawings.

Website
www.mariabaraybar.com

Bird Raptor Series 12122007

Dirigible

Urban Formations Series 08172009

Moses’ Monument

www.laminatedlove.com

Saturday, October 16 from 7-11pm

F.O.K.U.S. INSIGHT Volume III | Issue 3

Triomph Fitness
540 President Street, Brooklyn NY

Art in Brooklyn will be co-hosting the event, and we’re looking to show work by local artists. To be considered, please submit a jpeg file with image details (size, medium, title) by September 7th to artinbrooklyn@gmail.com

First Snow

Thanksgiving

Mornings

Green

Fontenelle

Artist Statement
I have spent several years drawing trees from observation; studying how their branches twist and turn, reach and retreat, linger… My new paintings are of trees painted from my imagination. A line becomes a branch, then a line again; it spurts, stops, twists, then breaks. The limbs are sometimes graceful; other times they are awkward, coarse, entangled gestures. Tension exists in reading the marks as both nature-based and pure abstraction.

The trees are painted in oil on translucent vellum stretched over mirror creating a subtle luminous quality and 3-dimensional effect. I try to capture the sublime quality of the Hudson River Luminists as well as the sense of limitless space in twelfth century Chinese Southern Sung landscapes. Within my paintings there are no cultural references; I aim to reflect the timelessness of nature in a fleeting moment.

Website
http://www.MaggieTobin.com

The Street (detail)

Biography
“A creative mind not content to simply sit back and observe- her work is alive.”

Linda Zacks has a passionate love affair with words and letters. Her signature is the way she uses type in her art – clever verbiage drawn from her trusty stack of sketchbooks. She uses words like artillery, firing back Life as it whizzes by your nose.

Linda’s work- part poetry, part paint reflects the adoration, anxiety, filth, fear, and visceral energy of just being alive and aware, and that makes its way into each picture. Tension. Calamity. The urban obstinance that turns a jackhammer into a musical instrument. That’s what it’s like. If it’s not cathartic, it’s not in her artistic vocabulary.

Her creations capture the essence of a restless mind- clever commentary about the world we live in: the wonders of being female, America the strange, Love & Hate and the twisting of traditional concepts, such as beauty and war. Every moment has the potential to be captured in a painting or a unique handmade book.

Nothing is out of the question: old wood, torn paper, rusty metal, ink, duct tape or a scribbled-over Polaroid. And the textures–gloppy skid marks, bumpy nodules and crusty scabs smother the surface.

Linda spent much of her life moving around – including living overseas in England as a young child and attending high school in Holland. Before moving to New York City in 1995, Linda graduated from Brown University studying semiotics and creative writing and spent her junior year across the street at The Rhode Island School of Design. This unique blend of studies led her to a career as an accomplished designer and fine artist.

Website
http://www.lindazacks.com