artist statement

Barss paints on canvas, wooden panels, rag board, and occasional pieces of furniture, using acrylics, oils, watercolour or interesting combinations of various paints. Her forms are often drawn from the natural world; turtles, dragonflies, birds and fish. The surfaces are alive with texture and layers of colour, with the negative space as interesting as the positive. Look closely, and subtle forms appear. The blue sky is not plain blue, but filled with swallow upon swallow. A tree holds the ghostly image of a full moon. Magic lives beneath the surface.

selected biography

Taiya Barss graduated from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, immigrated to Canada in 1973, lived in Cape Breton for many years and has resided in Halifax since 1998. She claims a grand father from Dartmouth and one son who was born in Cape Breton. She has exhibited widely, and is represnted in collections in Canada, the United Staes, Brazil and Europe.

Recent exhibition history:

2008 Heart Song University of Cape Breton

2008 Rock, Paper, Scissors Inverness County Centre for the Arts.

2007 Heart Song Inverness County Centre for the Arts.

2005 Dark Leaves, Sunny Spaces, Tower Hill Botanic Garden, Boylston, Ma.

2004 Lighten Up/Amusings, Corridor Gallery (VANS), Halifax, NS

2004 Feast Your Eyes, Stimul'eye Gallery, 56 Sherbourne St. Toronto, ON

2004 Five Crows Silver, Argyle Gallery, Halifax, NS

2003 Parallel Visions, UCCB Art Gallery, Sydney, NS

2002 Time In Her Hands, Houston North Gallery,   Lunenberg, NS.

2002 Animal, Vegetable and Mineral, Quinsigamond Community College, Worchester MA

2002 The Red Show, Argyle Fine Art, Halifax NS.

2001 Museum School Alumni Show, Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Boston MA.

2001 Alpha Chalk, Argyle Fine Art, Halifax NS.

2001 Animal, Vegetable and Mineral, Corridor Gallery, Halifax, NS.

Collections:

Nova Scotia Art Bank

Art Gallery of Nova Scotia

University College of Cape Breton

Education

1969 School of the Fine Arts, Boston, MA.

1963 Antioch College, Yellow Springs, OH.