BARBARA APARO

BARBARA APARO is a painter and poet who lives in Essex, MA. In 1986, along with painter Karen Koch-Wester, Aparo presented a show entitled "Dogtown: That Wilder Place" at her Paint Hill Gallery in Gloucester. "The Dogtown Linens", the poem, is based on "The Dogtown Linens," a series of three paintings. The actual Dogtown linens are municipal maps of the area, adhered to linen, and then rolled up and stored in cubby holes to preserve them. Barbara Aparo writes, "I used the linens, loved the ritual of withdrawing and unrolling these great maps to study parts of Gloucester, and I began to think of them in terms of painting and writing." Of the connection between the two, the artist writes, "You will see that the canvases were physically separated, stitched together, and then worked with color. It seemed reasonable to speak about the terminal moraine in that manner. To attempt to portray the paradox of Dogtown was the goal. To consider it was the reward."

Hear Barbara Aparo: discuss the making of "The Dogtown Linens" paintings read her poem "The Dogtown Linens"