Artwork copyright Barbara Noah. Photo courtesy of the artist.

Pioneer, 1993

Barbara Noah
American (born 1949)

Location: Lakeside Middle School, Nine Mile Falls

About the Artwork

Pioneer is a print by artist Barbara Noah, composed by mixing and matching different photo images. It is part of a body of artworks that investigate the human figure. She notes, “This piece has a ghost head for eyes, a cactus torso and Delicate Arch from Arches Canyon [in Utah] for legs with a boot. I prefer to let the viewer interpret the content, but the ghost head could represent the soul, the spines of the cactus protection and the strong legs physical endurance… This work reflects our tendency to anthropomorphize, to find meaning through identification between such a surrogate figure and ourselves and to reach a sense of the transcendent in the context of ordinary, everyday reality. It is both ridiculous and sublime.”

This artwork was acquired for the State Art Collection in partnership with Nine Mile Falls School District.

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.