Barbara was born in Duluth, MN and grew up in White Bear Lake.  I have loved art my entire life and always painted in my free time but started painting professionally in the late 80's after I quit "work" to paint.  I went back to school and graduated from Metropolitan State University with a degree in Psychology intending to be an art therapist but my love for painting was stronger than my desire to be a therapist and so I delved into painting full-time.  My husband and I moved to Eureka Springs, Arkansas in 1998.  I had my own gallery, worked at another gallery and started a co-op of 8 local well known artists.  I was very successful until COVID.  We moved back to Minnesota in 2020.  

Although primarily an oil painter, I also work in acrylics, pen and ink and sometimes watercolor.  I love nature, especially trees and flowers and do a lot of birch and aspen trees.  I use color and texture, patterns and shapes to convey that feeling.  I am continually editing, changing, adding and substracting as I am creating until I feel it's "right".

I have had two solo exhibits in Arkansas - Arts Center of the Ozarks and at the University of Arkansas, Mountain Home - and I was featured at a juried exhibition at Crystal Bridges American Art Museum in Bentonville, Arkansas in 2008.