Artist Jillian Barber creates mythical ceramic sculptures/portrait faces, “other-worldly” photography

Dragons, mermaids, mermen, and sphinxes abound on Jamestown, Rhode Island’s Conanicut Island. They “live” at Ceramic Artist Jillian Barber’s home studio, perched on a hill overlooking Dutch Harbor Boat Yard in Narragansett Bay, an idyllic setting for creating sculptures and mythical creatures. Jillian’s brightly-colored ceramic animal and fantasy masks and ivory portrait “faces” on walls and countertops greet visitors with expressions of warmth, sleep or meditation.“I have been lucky in that friends and family have been very willing to be experimented upon,” Jillian said with a mischievous laugh. “My brother (Adrian Barber) was one of the first people I cast. I played with it and turned him into a being from another planet, a nature spirit with dragons on top.” Her beau, David, is her muse for the popular Greenman masks and fountains, she said, because he is handsome and has a beard.

Above: “The Greenman” mask “ is the symbol of male fertility, rebirth and regeneration.

“Greenman is a symbol of male fertility, rebirth, and regeneration. You see it everywhere. It is an ancient image that has been carved into the backs of chairs, tops of columns, church pews. It’s pagan, but it’s in churches as well. My theory is that there is Mother Nature and Mother Nature’s beau or boyfriend. I refer to The Greenman as the consort of Mother Nature.” By intensifying the natural beauty of a woman or a man with a headdress of flowers, fish, dragons, birds, small faces or shells around the mask “like they’re from a different realm like a goddess, diva or a Greenman, elevates their beauty a little bit,” Jillian said. “It’s a different definition of beauty, and it’s something you wouldn’t see every day.”

Ceramic Sculptor Jillian Barber, circa 1972 Photo by Frank Jo Raymond.

Born in England to U.S. Army Private Horace Greenman Barber and his war bride, Kathleen Potts of Staffordshire (home of English pottery), Jillian said both her parents inspired her. She attributes her whole line of sea creatures to growing up in Westerly, Rhode Island and spending time with her father as a child swimming, clamming and canoeing in freshwater and saltwater. He and his brothers also took her along on fishing and hunting trips. She uses casts of real horseshoe crabs, bluefish, flounder and a pogie for authenticity. Additionally, Jillian was always around flowers, because her father was a florist at Munro’s Florist in Westerly. Hearing her mother read English fairy tales also “totally” fueled her imagination, she said.

“Sphynx” by Jillian Barber.

After graduating from the Rhode Island School of Design in 1968, she didn’t know what she was wanted to do but knew she wanted to live in the country, be her own boss, and decide her own schedule. “I found my way by doing what I felt was right, following my intuition. A lot of it was making the right choices…I’ve always been a free spirit, even as a kid.” Jillian creates unique large and small masks of people, as well as planters, imaginative animals, and assemblages of found items.“Instilling life into my work is one of the things I like to do.” She said mermaids are especially important to her and many women. “On some subconscious level, they represent femininity and freedom of movement.” From the mid-1970s until 2007, Jillian designed animal/medieval costumes and theatrical masks for the Chorus of Westerly’s A Celebration of Twelfth Night, and also sang alto with the group for 25 years. She considers the late Anne Hall Utter one of her heroes who wrote and produced original scripts in which good triumphs over evil. She also got to divulge in another level of her creativity. “There would be the court, the king and the queen, court jesters, amazing dragons, boars, unicorns, forest creatures, birds...a snake goddess…I made horses that you would ride on…celestial spirit beings that were 15 feet high and a 30-foot-long dragon. The paper mache gradually changed to chicken-wire with a layer of thin foam and beautiful fabrics of fur and brocade, and I would see these little things I made out of clay come alive on stage.”

“Mermaids,” Mermaids are especially important to her and many women.

Jillian also combines costume designing with her photography work. She said she likes working with black-and-white film because it gives it an older, “other-worldly” quality. Additionally, “black and white are sometimes stronger looking than the same photograph in color.” Some of the photographs on her website, which she describes as “Victorian Romanticism,” feature subjects dressed in gauzy/lacy clothing. Sometimes, she uses a double-exposure film technique to produce a ghost-like image.” One such photograph, “Doppelganger,” was one of 50 chosen out of about 800 at the Silvermine Arts Center in New Canaan, Connecticut. She enjoys photographing quirky people and situations for humorous photos. For 15 years beginning in 1975, she sold to over 30 wholesale companies across the country and went to two wholesale and some retail shows annually. These days, Jillian enjoys selling to retail customers closer to home, receiving feedback, and interacting with people.“All kinds of surprises happen. You never know what anyone is going to say. People are so attracted to the dragons because they seem alive. I always say dragons pick out their people. There is a mutual attraction.” Sometimes, she learns that her pieces are “going to live” in other places, including Germany, Poland, England, France, and Japan. The award-winning sculptor/photographer said she takes one day at a time. She also prepares pieces for future shows and has ideas simmering in her mind – like creating a big ceramic head made up of small faces and bodies. “I’m not sure what it is going to look like, but it’s going to be fun.”

Self-Portrait of Jillian Barber

Jillian said she likes David’s idea of creating ceramic masks from molds of faces she has in a tub. “Start doing them one at a time in a format. Just keep them the same size. Do them in white or off-white. Just glaze them. Don’t bother doing anything to them. No foliage, no nothing, and then have a show of every face to see who I’ve got.”

“Doplanger” was one of 50 chosen out of about 800 at the Silvermine Arts Center in New Canaan, CT.

Jillian Barber creates a new Jardiniére at her home studio.

On Sunday, January 19, meet the artist and enjoy tea and refreshments between 9 and 11 a.m. at the Cottage. Then on the same day from 2 to 4 p.m. at the Ocean House’s main building, Jillian will give a lecture. A reception will follow. To sign up for these events, call (855) 678-0364, or go online to www.oceanhouseevents.com. For more information about Artist Jillian Barber, email her at Ladyclay17@hotmail.com, or go to her website: www. jillianbarber.com.

Jillian received two awards at the Mystic Museum of Art in 2019: A Ceramic Award for her mask, “Gaia,” at the 108th Connecticut Academy of Fine Arts Annual Exhibition in April and the Teddy Goberis Award for Excellence in Ceramics from The Katherine Forest Crafts Foundation for “The Greenman” mask during the museum’s 63rd Regional Exhibition. Jillian also won the Teddy Goberis Award at the Norwich Arts Center Gallery for her “Sphinx” sculpture in August 2019. Jillian’s work can be viewed at the Spring Bull Art Gallery in Newport, Rhode Island and the Charlestown Gallery in Charlestown, Rhode Island. Soon she will be the artist-in-residence at The Ocean House in Westerly, Rhode Island. A sculpting class at the Old Schoolhouse Cottage will be held on Saturday, January 18 from 9 a.m. to Noon.