Jay Barry Studio

I work largely in black and white oil pastels. This monochromatic palette ensures the subject won’t get lost in the colorful details of costumes or surroundings. I love using my fingers to blend and smudge the oils into highlights and shadows. For me, it is bare and raw emotion portrayed on my canvas. It’s this emotion flowing between the two partners that the viewer should focus on.

Dance is simultaneously a public and private moment. From a ballerina leaping high into the air, a street dancer showing grace as they balance on a single hand, and a ballroom dancer guiding their partner in a spin, or simply holding them close. Is it Tango or Swing dancing that you love? Waltz or freestyling? All these styles of dance are an art form to behold.

There is the public display of fancy moves that thrills bystanders and makes them wish they could dance like that. And there is the private moment, which is the mental and physical connection between partners that forms their silent conversation. It is the lead dancer, speaking in movement to his or her partner, and that partner’s stylized response. That moment, when thoughts of an audience disappear and the dancers get lost in the music and moment, is the feeling I love to capture.

As I’ve continued to study these private moments, I’ve turned to another love: motorcycles. In these paintings, you can see the motorcyclists reflecting on their rides, either at the start, middle, or end of those flights down the open road.

These flashes in time, when people let down their guard, when they stop smiling or posing and look inward, these are the moments I love to capture.

I hope my art inspires you to strap on your helmet, grab your motorcycle, and get out on the open road and just ride. It doesn’t matter if it’s a café racer, dual sport, or vintage motorbike. I hope you can feel the twists and turns, setting up for each bend in the road, throttle control, clutch and brake in a symphony of moves as you fly across the landscape.

I hope you’re excited to grab your dance partner and head to the dance floor. To twist, dip, and spin to the band playing your favorite song. I hope my ballroom art makes you smile when you see them. I hope you’re inspired to practice more and fall in love once again with dancing.

(Added April 2020)

I started the Pandemic Paintings (initially called the Quarantine Paintings, but since I like alliteration, I had to change it to Pandemic Prints) as a 30 painting challenge to myself to increase my painting skills while staying home during the quarantine. But once I finished “Deemed Nonessential” I knew I was on to something more than just honing my skills. The paintings struck a chord with people. People who were on that list of “Nonessentials” loved this painting, and shared it.

As I continued these paintings, more art cropped up on social media with regards to the Pandemic and I knew I wasn’t alone in my idea of capturing the quarantine. I’d read the news, and hear about friend’s parents dying due to Covid19, the toilet paper and disinfectant shortages, the fear, and then the rage as people no longer cared to be stuck at home and wanted haircuts again.

I wanted people to stop and think about what this pandemic meant not to them, but to others. People insisting the virus is a hoax, people wanting to get back to work, despite the risk to others, people wanting to get their hair cut, or drink in a bar again. Fox news insisting everything is okay and telling people to go back to work all the while telling their own employees to continue to work from home. And as is so prevalent in our society today, people flat out ignoring the science and insisting it’s their right to not wear a mask—even if that “right” will kill someone’s parents or grandparents.

Despite the selfish people out there, I love seeing the selfless ones risking their lives to be on the front lines of this Pandemic—the health care workers, the mask sewers, those still manning the restaurants and bars so we can at least get takeout or delivery.