The idea of words and photos was something that appealed to me. Robert Barry More Quotes by Robert Barry More Quotes From Robert Barry I am an artist who works very well under pressure, in fact. I like to have deadlines. Robert Barry artist pressure facts I work with deadlines. It is terrible to be an artist where you are just producing work and nobody gives a damn. Nobody wants to show it. Robert Barry artist want giving And we live in a kind of realm of language and words and so forth. So we can sort of relate to them. They don't exist without us. We create words. Robert Barry realms language kind I am always producing work, but there is always a sort of deadline where you have to finish work. I don't do it for a show. In other words, I am not like a fashion designer where I have a, you know - I have to put out the full line or I have to put out the summer line like that. Robert Barry lines fashion summer I have a lot of ideas for art. And it is really - I don't really have time to do them all. Robert Barry ideas art I have never had a shortage of ideas for shows. I always just do them and the gallerists don't - they stopped long ago trying to tell me what I should show in their gallery. They just don't even do it. I show whatever I want to show. They are very happy and as far as I know, they have always been very pleased with whatever I have shown, even if it is nothing to sell. Robert Barry long-ago trying ideas I work sometimes with dealers and sometimes people just come to me. A lot of the commissions, they just know me. They have seen something and they just approach me. Robert Barry approach sometimes people I am very generous with my dealers in terms of the art that they have of mine. They all have a very good selection of work that they can work with. And it is up to them to find the dealers. I don't interfere with their selling. Robert Barry very-good selling art I am very easy. I like to have my work out. I am not restrictive about any of that. It is the collectors that are possessive, not me, not me. Robert Barry possessive work-out easy If somebody gives me a chance to do something, I am going to use that space, that time, that light, that whatever it is and try and work with it. Robert Barry space light giving I am a very lucky artist in the sense that I have had all my life a lot of opportunities to do what I want to do. Robert Barry lucky artist opportunity I just try things and whether people like it or if I find it successful or not, I just do it. Robert Barry successful trying people After I did the drawings of trees combining them with words, I started doing - I did that for a very short time. Then it kind of - that sort of evolved into just showing the branches of a tree coming down into the trunk and then going into the root system. So I showed both the branches and the roots of a tree, which were about equal. There is as much going on under the ground as is going on above the ground, which you can see. Robert Barry drawing roots tree I have been in competitions for commissions. I've won most and lost some. Mostly, I've won. Robert Barry has-beens competition lost The big thing is I try not to repeat. Robert Barry repeats bigs trying I think you say the word in your mind anyway, you know. When you look at a word, you say it. Robert Barry mind looks thinking I think words speak to us even though they may be written on a wall. So we hear them in our mind. We say it to ourselves. But they are also visual things. You draw them. They are designed. They are colored. They have a certain size. I put them in a certain place. So they are objects that have to be - artistic decisions have to be made in terms of the color and the size and the line and whatever. Robert Barry wall color thinking And style, by the way, is a very important thing. It is like your signature, your handwriting or it is something that you develop that is your way of presenting yourself and also your way of looking at what art - of how to make art. Robert Barry style important art I wanted my style to be very recognizable. Robert Barry style wanted And when you are operating within your style, which is your world, which you operate in, then it also would make sense to you. Now, whether it makes sense to anybody outside is besides the point really. You just do it and then you find that other people kind of begin to relate to it and allow themselves to get into your way of thinking about things. Robert Barry style people thinking
