At Princeton, she took a class with the acclaimed sculptor, Professor Joe Brown; and, also took a lithography printing course. Needing to make up for a course dropped the semester she joined mass protests for Princeton to divest from South Africa, Barbara took a summer drawing course back home in Philadelphia at the Moore College of Art and Design. Her best drawing from that course inspired an oil painting, while many nude figures were painted over the years, usually in monochromatic blue hues. Upon completion of her PhD in clinical psychology at the City University of New York, she was compelled to paint trees in Central Park in their Autumn burst of color. As the newly-minted Dr. Wallace, she completed 13 oil paintings in that Central Park series, followed by abstract versions of trees. She then pioneered “flash art,” creating an abstract image and punching holes in the back of a large canvas through which Christmas lights were placed to flash on and off.
Barbara C. Wallace, PhD is an African American visual artist, following her father in oil and acrylic painting—and, in having a primary career teaching. Turning down an art scholarship to Bryn Mawr College, she entered Princeton, class of 1980, despite friends warning, “You are an artist trying to be a scientist.” Her “wearable art” at Princeton included jean jackets with elaborately embroidered back panels, while one later became the center piece of a large textile wall mural. She also wore a coat and clothing sewn from patches of jean fabric, thereby emulating her mother (also a teacher) in sewing and fashion design. As did her grandmother in South Carolina, Barbara has sewn many large quilts, combining colorful lace, velvet, satin, and metallic-looking fabrics.
Once a tenured Professor at Teachers College, Columbia University, she combined acrylic and sparkle paints to convey spiritual metaphysics on both canvas and wall murals; and, within this genre of “sparkle painting” she pioneered a technique of painting small sections of wall murals in a particular color and throwing handfuls of glitter on those sections while still wet—meticulously repeating this process with multiple colors. During a sabbatical, a ceramics class gained her a reputation for large pieces dominating kiln space. As did her father, she writes poetry, usually to honor the accomplishments of others, and decorates the framed works to create a sparkly piece of art gifted to the one honored. Inspired by Professor Brown at Princeton, her future plans for retirement are to focus on sculpture, while artistic expression in some form will always remain essential.