The Busy Northwest Printmaker

Barbara Mason is an artist/printmaker working in her own printmaking studio in Aloha, 15 miles west of Portland, Oregon. A lifelong artist, she began studying printmaking in the early 80's and was immediately enamored with the medium. Barbara has been making monotypes almost exclusively for the last 20 years but recently also began making block prints. Monotypes are what they sound like, there is only one image printed. Using a piece of clear acrylic as a plate the image is painted on the plastic with a stiff lithography ink and transferred to 100% damp rag paper with an etching press.

Barbara is an arts advocate and active in the community. She has been a resource person for the Beaverton School District since 1976. Serving eight years on the board of the Vivian and Gordon Gilkey Center for Graphic Arts at the Portland Art Museum she was also a founding board member of Art in the Pearl, an outdoor community arts fair taking place for the 5th time this Labor Day Weekend. She is on the board of Crow's Shadow Institute of Art on the Umatilla Indian Reservation, is currently a juried artist member of the Northwest Print Council and serving on their board as Secretary/Treasurer. She is the current director of Waterstone Gallery in Portland, OR. Barbara spends many hours each year as a volunteer teaching printmaking in local schools and for Art Media and the Northwest Print Council. Her enthusiasm for printmaking is translated into wonderful works by students ages 8-80 who thought they couldn't draw and therefore couldn't make art. They were mistaken, Barbara is sure anyone can make art and everyone should be doing so.

The Portland Art Museum, Intel Corporation, Crow's Shadow Institute of Art and many private collectors have pieces of her work.

Education

1963-68 University of Washington, Seattle, WA 1981-84 Oregon College of Art and Craft, Portland, OR
1985-87 Portland State University, Portland, OR
1988-89 Pacific Northwest College of Art, Portland, OR Workshops taken from, Lise Drost, Kim Fink, George Johanson, Myrna Burk, Christy Wyckoff, Tom Prochaska, Brian Shannon, Graham Scholes, Michael Schlicting, and Yugi Hiratsuka

Professional Experience

1992-2000 Board Member of the Vivian and Gordon Gilkey Center for Graphic Arts 1993-2001 Artist Member Northwest Print Council, Board member 1993-95, 2000-2001 1998-2001 Board Member of Crow's Shadow Institute of Art, Pendleton, OR 1996-2001 Founding board member, Art in the Pearl, Portland, OR 1974-2001 Vice President, C.F. Plastics, Inc., Hillsboro, OR 1992-2001 Artist/Owner, Waterstone Gallery, Portland, OR.