Lynda Barry: An Exemplary Artist

 

            When I heard about Lynda Barry I created an image of who this person was. She tried to write a story, I heard, but she could not get started as she was sitting next to a computer. Typing was not her thing, there was something about the medium that would not allow her to express artistically. As I was listening to this, I was thinking how horrible can it be for an artist to have the talent and the skill to express his or her art but does not have control of the medium that dominates that area of expression. An excellent writer who cannot write because the given medium, the computer, does not allow his or her ideas be channeled and expressed. 

            After meeting Lynda Berry on January 24^th at Lawrence University I understood what makes an individual into an artist in addition to the skill or talent to create art. Lynda Barry could not express through a computer, therefore instead of typing she went back to the primitive tools; paper and pencil.

 The artistic world consists of no limits. The artist does not have barriers. An artist can turn his environment into art and use any object as an artistic tool. Marshall McLuhan noticed it in the 60s that “all media are extensions of some human faculty- psychic or physical” (McLuhan, The medium is the massage). The problem is, the world of expression becomes a dominated world where laws and expectations become rule and individuals have to use the same media to produce the same product. It is understandable if painters use symmetrical canvases as a media, but it should not be a rule that all painters have to use a horizontal or vertical (a square or rectangle, and other) canvas. They should not be limited to use a canvas at all. 

In her lecture, Lynda Barry talked about the importance of images for the human mind. We attribute meaning to objects, we create images that help us understand our surroundings and help us to connect and belong. 

I am impressed at Lynda Barry’s charisma, loving, sensitive and strong character. Her work reflects her enthusiasm to express her world and her interest in humanity. She is one with her work. She breaks free from the typing machine, breaks free from the computer world by not allowing it to stop her thoughts and utilizes what she feels more comfortable with, her hand and pencil. Her own handwriting and color pencils. Barry became a role model to me, not only as an artist, but as a human being who is willing to listen to the point that she would close her eyes in order to picture your story and become the character of your narration.