BARB RIDDLE

Barb Riddle is a mixed-media artist and poet with a flair for appropriation. Mundane materials such as string, scotch tape, and pages ripped from magazines and books all become part of her large assemblages. The finished work manages to combine these seemingly random elements into a unified field, a glimpse into Riddle’s uncommon and extraordinary imagination. Text taken from found poetry becomes infused with clipped photographs collaged onto backgrounds spread with color and punctuated with lines of string, glitter, or tape.

Topics that Riddle has explored in her work have ranged from romance to architecture, but since the 2008 election, her primary subject has been President Obama. Dozens of works have been created, from portraits to shrines, in tribute to the president. Barb enjoys making work with a variety of media including clay, fabric, and crochet. Her art has been shown at several venues in the Cincinnati area including the Fitton Center for Creative Arts and the American Classical Music Hall of Fame. Barb’s collages were featured in the 2011 exhibition Outsider Art Inside the Beltway in Washington D.C.