BIO

Joel Barr grew up in Orlando before Disney arrived, so the stories of a small town entered his psyche early. He went to Duke University where he majored in economics and then to the University of North Carolina to get a master's degree in city planning.

Before finding his natural home in the arts, he was a planner of social services, a junior high school English teacher, and the owner of a display equipment distribution firm. He sold that firm in order to write full-time and the writing eventually gave way to the visual arts. Now, he paints, sculpts, and writes full-time in his home studio.

From his first paintings, he was called a surreal artist but he also does abstracts and his own sort of landscapes, interiors, and portraits. His paintings are owned by corporate and private collectors throughout the United States. He does commissions for individual and corporate clients and has done cover art for twenty or more books.

Joel Barr lives in Atlanta now with his wife, Grace (a free-lance writer), and Jack the eternal puppy. His son is a jewelry maker and his daughter, a meeting planner. His grandson learns and teaches.

RESUME

Selected Recents Exhibitions:

Knoxville Museum of Art, Artscapes, Knoxville, Tennessee

Knoxville Museum of Art Guild, Artists on Location,
Knoxville, Tennessee

Kate Boccia Presents, FOLK FEST, Atlanta, Georgia

Webb School of Knoxville, ArtXtravaganza, Knoxville, Tennessee

Southworks National Exhibition, Oconee Foundation for the Arts, Watkinsville, Georgia

Alexandria Festival of the Arts, Alexandria, Virginia

Atlanta Artists Center National Juried Show, Atlanta, Georgia

Mainsail Arts Festival, St. Petersburg, Florida

Education:
B.A. Economics, Duke University

Masters, City Planning, University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill

Art Workshops with artists Barbara Tiffany,
Gregg Kreutz, and Marty Dawe

Publications:
Novel: Chapters and Verse, Peregrine Smith Books (hardback) and The Author's Guild (paperback)

Non-fiction: text for All Aboard: A Journey through Historic Winter Garden, Winter Garden, Florida Heritage Foundation

Poetry: in Encore, Poetry View, New Infinity Review, Pigiron, Huerfano, Voices International, RE'AL, Elysian Fields, and others

Book Reviews: Richmond Times Dispatch, Planning Magazine, Orlando Sentinel, Winter Park Outlook

Articles: in People's Appalachia, Planning Magazine, Richmond Magazine, Winter Park Outlook, Electronics Magazine, and others

Short Stories: Fan Magazine, Pigiron

Art Exhibit Catalog Text: The Nervous Orange (and another ten) Maitland Art Center, Maitland, Florida