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GARY BARTON

b.1962

Biographywas born in Fullerton, California, raised in Orem, where he went to high school, and now resides in Provo. His B.A. is from Brigham Young University and M.F.A. from Ohio State. Barton is now an assistant professor of art at BYU. He works in mixed media (especially in his installation-assemblage pieces), printmaking, oils, and watercolor. His work is contemporary abstract with some reference to representational form and a strong visionary and spiritualist quality. He is married to Jennifer Hilllam Barton. (b. December 24)

Olpin, Robert S., William C. Seifrit, and Vern G. Swanson. ARTISTS OF UTAH. Salt Lake City: Gibbs Smith Publisher, 1999: 16.

Gary Barton was born in Fullerton, California, but spent much of his youth in Utah. He earned his BFA degree from Brigham Young University and his MFA degree from The Ohio State University, where he was the recipient of a University Fellowship. Gary joined the faculty at Brigham Young University in 1994 and is an Assistant Professor. He has actively exhibited throughout the United States and is included in a number of collections. Gary uses a variety of materials with an emphasis on printmaking, painting, and mixed media works.

It is the awareness of the deceptive character of the surface of everything we encounter which drives one to discover what is below the surface. But soon we realize that even if we break through the surface of a thing or a person or an event, new deceptions arise. So we try to dig further through what lies deepest below the surface - to the truly real which cannot deceive us. We search for an ultimate reality, for something lasting in the flux of transitoriness and finitude... - Paul Tillich, "Art and Ultimate Reality" in Art Creativity and the Sacred

I believe that my efforts as an artist are related to the search that Paul Tillich describes. Perhaps my work functions as a record of a process, or possibly a sign. It is certainly a personal expression of various thoughts, concerns, questions, and observations, limited though they may be.

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