41 Facts About Barbara Bullock

Barbara J Bullock is an African American painter, collagist, printmaker, soft sculptor and arts instructor.

Barbara Bullock creates three-dimensional collages, portraits, altars and masks in vibrant colors, patterns and shapes.

Barbara Bullock was born in Philadelphia on Nov 24,1938, after her father James Barbara Bullock moved his family from North Carolina to Philadelphia in the 1930s.

Barbara Bullock's mother Janie McFarland Bullock looked for work at the local armory and her father was a truck driver.

The couple separated and Barbara Bullock's mother died when she was 12 years old.

Barbara Bullock always felt a need to make things and was always in her parents' basement doing that, she told artist Najee Dorsey in a 2017 interview.

Barbara Bullock was asked to leave a dance class when she showed up one day with a stray dog and refused to remove it.

Barbara Bullock quit the class but never gave up on the concept.

Barbara Bullock participated in the School Art League, an arts program in the public schools.

Barbara Bullock attended Saturday-morning classes at the Philadelphia Museum School of Art School and participated in programs at community centers.

Barbara Bullock became interested in Africa after learning about it in National Geographic magazine and wanted to understand her connection to it.

Barbara Bullock attended Roosevelt Junior High School and graduated from Germantown High School in 1958.

Barbara Bullock was headed to Moore Institute to study fashion illustration.

Barbara Bullock initially painted portraits of famous Americans, friends, and family members.

Barbara Bullock sought to show the humanity of Black people, she told an interviewer in 1966, but finally decided to paint what she felt.

Barbara Bullock hung out with Joe Bailey, Moe Brooker, James Brantley, Charles Searles and Ellen Powell Tiberino to talk about their craft, the lack of exhibition opportunities and other issues.

In 1971, Barbara Bullock was named art director of the Ile Ife Black Humanitarian Center, now the Village of Arts and Humanities, founded by dancer and choreographer Arthur Hall, where she stayed until 1975.

Barbara Bullock taught art techniques to children and young adults.

Barbara Bullock met musicians Odean Pope and Max Roach, who taught there.

Barbara Bullock embraced Hall's African sensibility and absorbed it into her own art.

Barbara Bullock's outlook changed, expanding beyond the teachings of her Catholic upbringing to accept the possibility of a world of spirits that allowed her to connect with her African roots.

Barbara Bullock took dance lessons from Hall, and she painted the dancers - images that found a permanent place in her works.

Barbara Bullock taught alongside Charles Pridgen, John Simpson, Charles Searles and Twins Seven Seven, a Nigerian who was the only survivor of seven sets of twins, who had settled in Philadelphia.

Artist Moe Brooker noted that Barbara Bullock was among those artists who fed off their African heritage but kept it at a distance as they created their own unique styles.

Barbara Bullock's spirit-based abstract works were dominated by vibrant colors, patterns, rhythmic movement and a cacophony of shapes.

Barbara Bullock chose black as a predominant color, she said, because she wanted to replace its negative symbolism with power and strength.

Barbara Bullock's materials included layers of painted paper, fabric, plant fibers, beads, metals, shells, feathers and other small materials.

Barbara Bullock placed them in her home and did not finish, sell or trade them.

Barbara Bullock incorporated into her collages the images she saw and the techniques she observed on her visits to Africa: the land, the black night sky, textiles and masks, and observed ceremonies and other events.

Barbara Bullock produced series made up of multiple works that, she said, allowed her to fully explore a theme.

Barbara Bullock chose her artist-friend Deryl Mackie as the male model.

Barbara Bullock participated in printmaking programs, including the Experimental Printmaking Institute at Lafayette College.

Over four decades, Barbara Bullock taught art classes in schools, colleges, community centers and for nonprofits.

Barbara Bullock completed more than 200 artist-in-residences in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware.

Barbara Bullock conducted mask-making and art classes at local art centers and museums.

Barbara Bullock trained teachers on integrating art in their school-district curriculums and led classes for inmates in prisons.

Barbara Bullock taught at Arts Horizon where she held classes for students in the Camden schools and trained schoolteachers on Rutgers University's Camden campus.

Barbara Bullock held a residency at Perkins Center for the Arts in New Jersey.

Barbara Bullock exhibited periodically in group shows in the 1960s with other Black artists.

Barbara Bullock participated in a benefit show at a lawn party for SNCC in 1975.

In 1990, Barbara Bullock was commissioned by Philadelphia International Airport to produce artwork.