Since the age of four Ted Barr now resides in Tel Aviv, Israel. He’s a painter, published author, teacher, lecturer and curator. His work has been exhibited internationally. And has been a curator in Miami, New York, Paris, Tel Aviv and Venice.
“First came the awe about the starry nights then the words to describe my inspiration. I started writing in my twenties, it took more than fifteen years for colors and shapes to join and be part of my self-expression. In my FLY book I wrote about our place as sparkling entities within the vastness of a dark universe, when I started to paint, stars and galaxies landed on my canvases”.
“Then I was exposed to Lennart Nilsson's inner body photography and, I was amazed about the similarity between stars and ovum, comets and sperms, embryos and galaxies, so, on big canvases I created my version of the beginning of human life”.
“From those two series, 'Deep Space' and 'Human Formation', emerged my current body of works 'Cycles of Life'. In my belief life and death are on the same bar of existence and there is no 'out there'. My method is called Free the Life within You, FLY is about the freedom to dare, cross the lines, be spontaneous, to mix oil and acrylic with cold tar in an unpredictable process and to embrace the unexpected results. Since 2009 I have been teaching FLY workshops around the globe. I believe that making and teaching art is my part of a collective effort to enlighten our world”.
4 main series:
1/ Figurative - from my early painting days, I had 7 years of figurative training with the Israeli master Shlomo Tzafrir.
2/ Deep Space - inspired by the Hubble telescope celestial images
3/ Human Formation - inspired by the inner body photography of Lennart Nilsson
4/ Cycles Of Life - there is no beginning nor end but an everlasting cycle of being with a body that is called life and without a physical body called death.
my art career brought me to many places touching many human beings finding out the healing aspect of the arts and the ability to bring people together by common inspiration.
“Life for me is a miracle, an unexpected sequence of relations, feelings, images, memories, dreams, fear, and hope that compose my being in this world. The constant awe about the life I have is the main reason I write and paint. I'm trying to express this feeling of inspiration by words, color and form so that other human beings will be able to connect to the magic in their lives.”
