Robert L. Barnum, associate professor of Fine Arts at Ferris State University

Education
M.F.A. Idaho State University
B.S. Southern Oregon State University
A.A. Oregon College of Art

I had the good fortune of growing up in typical middle-class America. Our family was in the construction business. Working summers, weekends, and school holidays in this blue-collar, male-dominated environment offered me a unique education. I was amazed at how fast these common, everyday Joes could change the face of the earth with enough muscle and equipment.

My interests and goals for the last 10 to 15 years have been quite simple. My goal is documentation. Not the kind of realistic, stop-action, image a journalistic photographer might seek, but nevertheless a form of documentation.

I simplify what I paint, reducing everything to its most graphic and simple form and color. I’m not interested in portraiture; I try to move away from faces in the sort of content that facial expressions might create, instead delivering general information that’s more animated and really deals with the whole figure as a moving force.