WALKING ON SAND: BARBARA SPILLER

“The term ‘bricolage’ – working with whatever is at hand – best describes my creative process. Whether I am documenting natural phenomena with my camera, printing textured papers or fibers, or seeing new relationships with materials and processes as I work, I am always involved in a cycle of collecting, combining, and often recombining.”
– Barbara Spiller, artist

Barbara Spiller is a Culver City based artist who has previously shown in Joshua Tree and enjoys spending time here in the desert. “Walking on Sand”, an exhibit of new works at Pilates and Arts, is inspired by encounters on hikes in the Mojave around Joshua Tree, and on the Santa Monica shore.

The works included in the show are meditations on the small, magical moments that emerge when spending time in nature. The artist’s eye is drawn to “small wonders, easily overlooked, but resonant with surprise, mystery and beauty.”

Spiller notes that she works intuitively, allowing lots of room for chance. “I am very drawn to texture and pattern, usually nature-derived: the meander of rivers seen from the air, surf-sculpted sand, ripples in a pond, the slow surge of trees, the star shapes of ground-hugging plants, the tangle of imagery left by the tide. Nature offers an endless succession of “compositions” – things that have grown, blown, fallen, washed, dried and become visually related to one another by chance and the fact of being perceived.”

“Walking on Sand” includes paintings, often built on earlier monotypes, mimicking the layered sense of history held by the sand, and assemblage of found materials – from the beach, the desert, and the studio.

Pilates & Arts Studio/Gallery
Saturday April 7th 6- 8 PM Opening Reception
“Walking on Sand” – Barbara Spiller solo exhibit
Exhibit April 7 – June 7, 2023
61607 suite C,
Twentynine Palms Highways,
Joshua Tree, CA 92252
Contact: 323-913-9460. info@pilatesandarts.com

Katie Nartonis is a writer, curator, art + design specialist and film maker. Her exhibit “Edwin + Lloyd” based on the founding of the Institute of Mentalphysics’ Retreat Center and the Lloyd Wright architectural treasures there is open 10am-5pm March 3, 4 and 5th. Her most recent documentary film “Jack Rogers Hopkins: California Design Maverick” premiered at the Palm Springs Art Museum Annenberg Theater during Palm Springs Modernism Week, 2023.