Artwork copyright Barbara Noah. Photo courtesy of the artist.

Artwork copyright Barbara Noah. Photo courtesy of Washington State Arts Commission.

Big, 1988

Barbara Noah
American (born 1949)

Location: Washington State Arts Commission, Olympia

About the Artwork

Big is a print by artist Barbara Noah, composed by mixing and matching different photographic images. It is part of a body of artworks that simulate human faces. She notes, "Whenever we see two dots with a third centered below, we see a face. This phenomenon is called the face recognition reflex. In this artwork, the mouth is a galaxy, the eyes an aged piece of driftwood with two holes in it, and the hair is the eruption of Mount St. Helens. These images can be interpreted as metaphors for human emotion."

This artwork was acquired for the State Art Collection in partnership with Washington State Arts Commission.

About the Artist

Seattle-based mixed-media artist Barbara Noah creates conceptual artworks, including photographs, sculptures and paintings.
Noah has taught art at national colleges and universities, including Cornish College of the Arts and the University of Washington, both in Seattle. She received a Bachelor of Arts in Art from Mills College in Oakland, California and a Master of Fine Arts degree from the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York. Noah received the 2011 Twining Humber Award for lifetime artistic achievement.