"Water Verses”, works by artist Barbara Hocker will be on display in the Woodbury Library’s Gallery Space and the Library's Community Case in October.

Barbara Hocker was born in South Norwalk, CT. She has a degree in Fibers from Syracuse University and attended Cranbrook Academy of Art.  Her earliest years were spent living between Long Island Sound and a saltwater marsh where life was organized by the tides. Water was elemental to everything, from the unique smell of the marsh at low tide to the floods that happened whenever storms came with winds from the northeast. Always interested in nature, it is probably no wonder that water has been her primary subject matter for more than 15 years. Barbara’s work inhabits the expanded field between photography, printmaking, and digital media. Digital photos, monotypes, watercolor, and encaustic become works on paper, panel, handmade books, and installations. Inspired by her interest in Wabi-Sabi, she fuses a material sensibility with a love of nature to create works that capture moments and details that are intimate, subtle, and beautiful, as well as layered, fleeting, and imperfect. Barbara has exhibited her work extensively, including solo shows in Connecticut at the Connecticut River Museum, Real Art Ways, ArtWalk Gallery at Hartford Public Library, TheaterWorks Gallery, EBT Gallery, Arts Center East, and the Celeste Lewitt Gallery at UCONN Health.

Her work is in institutional and private collections, including the University of Colorado Library’s Rare and Distinctive Book Collection, Saint Olalf College Rolvaag Library Special Collections Artist Book Collection, The Ruth and Marvin Sackner Archive of Concrete and Visual Poetry, University of Iowa Library, and the permanent collections of The Memorial Sloan Kettering Hospital. Barbara is a member of Silvermine Guild, New England Book Artists, and the International Association of Hand Paper Makers and Paper Artists. She holds a degree in Fibers from Syracuse University’s College of Visual & Performing Arts and attended Cranbrook Academy of Arts. She lives in Bolton, CT with her muse/husband and two spoiled cats. Her studio is in Hartford, CT.