Barbara Parmet

Mixed Media

I have used photography for 45 years as a way of seeing and investigating the world.

With a camera as a basic tool and an evolving approach to process, I have found art making to function in the same way as my meditation practices. For 30 years I have studied with teachers in the Theravada, Mahayana and Vajrayana lineages. The themes of art and meditation are the same: life and death, impermanence and the interconnectedness of all things.

In the Lace and Bone series, I have used the cyanotype, a 19th century photographic process, along with fabric and sewing techniques to illuminate the way our bodies are ephemeral. Although we think of bones as being the hard architecture of the skeleton, in reality they are as fragile as lace.

With the 10 x 10-foot Dragon Tree, I have used the cyanotype on fabric again. This time, I have made 50 prints and sewn them together to further my ability to build mural size images. The tree imagery reflects the human, animal, and plant condition through the use of interwoven branches. Like the tree branches, all things interweave into the great web of the universe.

More on Barbara Parmet’s work can be found on our Links page.