Barbara Mason

A printmaker for 40 years, I’ve been an artist all my life. Most of my work is non-objective, but I draw much inspiration from the cosmos and the natural world.

With regard to Solarplate printmaking – I always loved etching, but hated the chemicals. I had children at home and taught a lot other children and I did not want the chemicals around. To say that the
Solarplate printing process changed my work is an understatement. I can safely make intaglio work with no chemicals except tap water, a heady thing for a printmaker.

I continue to work, teach and encourage emerging printmakers. I am president of Print Arts Northwest (second stint), a regional printmaking professional organization in the Pacific Northwest. I teach
several workshops a year in Portland, Oregon using Solarplate and occasionally I travel to do a weekend workshop in another area. I have served on the boards of the Gordon Gilkey Center for Graphic Arts at the Portland Art Museum; Art in the Pearl; Crow’s Shadow Center for the Arts, the Washington County Museum, Print Arts Northwest.

My work appears in the Portland Art Museum; Crow’s Shadow Center for the Arts; The Spencer Museum of Art in Lawrence, Kansas; The New York Public Library Collection; the Hallie Ford Museum of Art at Willamette, and in the collection of Jordon Schnitzer, as well as numerous private collections.