Barbara Arum

 My Story

I was born and raised in Des Moines, Iowa.

I believe I got my artistic inspiration from my father.

Early on as a child, I loved his rock collection which was in our basement and subsequently in New York with me; some stones he cut and polished. Later on, our house was extended, and he got two rooms for himself in the basement. In one space was his workshop with a large wood cabinet he made and 7 large standing tools (I ended up with the standing drill press). In the second smaller room, he designed and installed a table that filled the room for my older brother’s Lionel train collection that he and my brother loved to run. The setup was very involved. My father was then going to make a desk for me but became ill. For most of the next two years my parents were away; he had two major operations at the University of Pennsylvania Hospital and one at the Mayo Clinic. My father died at age 37, I was 12, my brothers were 14, 4 and 2.

 After one year at the University of Michigan, I went to Katharine Gibbs, a secretarial school in Manhattan where my mother was raised, and I had some family. My mother had one year at Wellesley and my father one year at M.I.T.; then they dropped out to marry. I was pleased to know that with my secretarial skills I would be able to work and support myself.

 At twenty-one, I left Lehman Bros. where I was working (my boss would wait for my return), and with my mother, we toured England, France, Italy, and Switzerland. In France and Italy, I was blown away by the incredible sculpture and thought some day I will work with my hands. Ten years later, a year after my third child was born, I enrolled in a sculpture class at a local studio with Ray Rocklin. First, carving in stone, then graduating to wood, wanting to work larger and still be able to lift the work. My husband laughed at my work. To learn about and understand art, I attended lectures and seminars at the Met, 92nd Street Y, and SUNY Purchase, went to gallery and museum exhibits, took bronze-casting classes at SUNY, Purchase with Phil Listengart, paper-making at Somers, NY, welding at Somers, BOCES, and Silvermine, and ceramics and glass cutting at the New School. I was intrigued to understand others’ work, and often incorporated what I learned into my own.

 The marriage ended after thirteen years. Within the next year, I was in a loving relationship with a man who had two children whose ages were similar to my kids. He was very supportive of my work. He and I backpacked and camped in the Catskills, a few times with all the kids, and we also rented ski houses in Vermont for six years, driving up every weekend with the kids to ski. It was wonderful. My teenaged boys would never have spent weekends with me in any other circumstances. Also, he and I got involved with birding. After 7 years, our relationship ended. I continued with the birding, and joined the Linnaean Society in New York City. In 1983 with both boys in college, I moved back to the city with my daughter Liz who then had her last two years of high school at the Friends School in Manhattan. Once Liz began Cooper Union, I started travelling within the States to bird. First trip away from the east coast was rafting down the Colorado thru the Grand Canyon.

 Eleven years after working in wood and stone, I showed my work in a fundraiser, sold 5 pieces and was hooked. Joined ‘Women and Art’, a N.O.W. task force, and became president of that group. Joined Mameroneck Artist Guild, ran their Northeast Juried Show, Hudson River Contemporary Artists, National Association of Women Artists and as a board member, juried sculpture and handled the slides. In 1980, joined New York Society of Women Artists and have been the treasurer twice, president once, years of jurying and setting up sculpture in exhibits, doing the prospectuses and worked on the updated Constitution. In 1983, I moved back to the city with my daughter, my sons were both in college. Also joined in the 80’s, Allied Artists of America where I was treasurer for two years, Contemporary Artists Guild, American Society of Contemporary Artists, and American Medallic Sculpture Association. In the 90’s joined and showed my work with the Carter Burden Gallery. I loved that whenever I finished a new piece, I had a place to exhibit it. I participated in the runnings of all groups except the last two mentioned.

 In 1986, I had a bilateral mastectomy due to breast cancer and got lymphedema the year after. I had been living with someone for two years beginning in 1984, and that relationship dissolved less than 2 months after surgery. That was the end of relationships. I then devoted myself to my passions – sculpture, birding, and cultural entities, New York Philharmonic concerts, contemporary dance at the BAM and Joyce (just 2 blocks from where I lived), and performances at the Public Theater and off-Broadway.

Needing to be more in and with nature, I bought a place in the Catskills in 1993, going back and forth every two weeks, three was too jarring, and then all summers upstate. I found it financially difficult to have two places, as the building in the city lost their J51 and the assessments were becoming expensive. At this point, most years l took a 3-week birding trip: Kenya, Cameroon, India, Madagascar, Antarctica, Brazil including Iguazu Falls, Uganda/Rwanda both birding and 5 Mountain Gorilla treks, and saved for the last the exotic Papua New Guinea. Along with this travelling, I started my Reliquary series, combining my love of birds with my sculptures…picking up organic forms to put in the reliquaries and finding items indigenous people made that could be used for the doors. It was a spiritual process for me. When the trips became too difficult – up at 4:30 a.m to be at a particular place before dawn when the birds would awake and look for food, and often birds at night when the nightjars, owls and such were out - I began to gather objects close to home.

 I’ve been very lucky in my life, raised a family, found my calling as a sculptor, discovered birding and travel, incorporated what l experienced in much of my work, and by chance ended up living, working, and gardening in the Catskills surrounded by nature and my own sanctuary.