Artist Barbara Furbush was drawn to Pacific Grove from the moment she first walked on Asilomar Beach. A printmaker who also does installations and participatory art, Furbush opened her Atmos Press/Studio in 2012 in the Pacific Grove Art Center. Recently she moved her studio to Mariposa Hall – more space was necessary after she bought a bed-sized printmaking press.
If you would like to know what “participatory art” actually means, come to see her newest exhibit Perspectives: Reflections on/of Self at PGAC. Prepare for being questioned on the subject of good and evil.
“Oh yes, they can participate in the exhibit without me,” Furbush says about visitors, whom she prefers to call contributors. “I try to be there as much as I can,” she adds.
This former librarian who, before settling in Pacific Grove, exhibited art regularly in Los Angeles for 30 years, set up instructions and materials to be played out for the duration of the exhibition. The pieces have been hanging in the Annand Gallery of PGAC and so far the reception is good – and people are participating.
Furbush doesn’t call her art “interactive” for a reason; it suggests a computer is involved, she says. But technology is not important in the quest of asking and answering “Who Am I?” and “Who Do I Want To Be?”
Non-participatory guests are allowed too – “Unfortunately,” Furbush says, mimicking a potential rebel, who typically demurs with, “Oh, I’m not an artist. Please don’t make me do that.”
Here, everyone is an artist. Children are invited, too, despite serious motifs.
“I guess it’s just my serious nature,” says Furbush, explaining her existential interests – with a cordial laugh that indicates just the opposite.
A full participatory tour takes one hour; there are eight or nine pieces to interact with. The goal is “a bit of self discovery and thoughtfulness,” Furbush says. “You think about yourself first, then you move to the community part and finish by composing your words of wisdom.”
Furbush first got interested in black-and-white printmaking. “I’m not a big colorist,” she says. She’s been teaching printmaking in places such as the Monterey Museum of Art or PGAC.
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