New York, NY
Biography:
Barbara Rachko was born in Paterson, New Jersey and grew up in a New York City suburb. She graduated from the University of Vermont with a B.A. in psychology. After college, Barbara earned a commercial pilot’s license and Boeing 727 flight engineer’s certificate, then spent seven years on active duty as a Naval officer. In 1986 while working at the Pentagon, she began to study figure drawing and medical anatomy, and began many long years of developing her craft. She subsequently resigned from active duty to devote herself to making art. On 9/11 Barbara’s life was changed forever when her husband, Dr. Bryan C. Jack, was killed on the plane that hit the Pentagon. Dividing her time between residences in New York and Alexandria, Virginia, Barbara enjoys a busy career as a professional artist. She is represented by four galleries around the United States, exhibits nationally and internationally, and continues to win accolades, including a 2008 – 2009 Joyce Dutka Arts Foundation award, for her unique work.
A note about subject matter. On trips to Mexico Barbara spends time in local mask shops, markets, and bazaars searching for the folk art figures (carved wooden animals, masks, and toys) that will later populate her pastels. She takes objects with a unique Mexican past—most have been used in religious festivals—and gives them a second life, so to speak, in New York in the present. Barbara uses these objects as surrogates for human actors and as potent symbols.
Website: www.barbararachko.com
