Barbara Fugate

About Barbara

Body Scan Series Statement

This series of work began in 2019. It is rooted in my experiences having regular MRI and PET scans as a part of my cancer treatment. In 2012, I was diagnosed with Breast Cancer. It recurred again in my liver in 2017. Now having metastatic disease, I have a forever-routine of treatment to prevent recurrence. Thanks to my AMAZING TEAM of nurses and doctors at the Swedish Cancer Institute, I am currently cancer free.

Cancer is a defeating disease in so many ways. Those of us who operate under its multi-faceted struggles understand what I mean. We persist and do what we can to live well, love widely, and follow our passions—like most without cancer do, too. We live, though, with the burden of health costs that can be crushing under our current health system, along with the multitude of side-effects of our life-saving drugs.


This Body Scan series includes paintings, mono prints and drawings. They are based on personal experiences—not on the scanned images themselves. I’ve never actually seen any of my scans. I only read the reports—holding my breath while praying hard for the words “unremarkable”.

It’s my hope that these images speak to everyone on a universal human level. We all live with feelings of vulnerability, hope, fear, joy, sadness, and strength. This is our Human Condition. And ultimately, this is the well-spring from which this Body Scan series is inspired.

Barbara Fugate

  • EDUCATION
  • MFA: Miami University of Ohio, Painting: Thesis: Explorations of the Self, The Self Portrait
  • BFA: Western Kentucky University, Painting/Drawing/Printmaking
  • SOLO ART EXHIBITIONS
  • Wildlife Watch, Urban Light Studio Gallery, WA   2010
  • Making Our Way, Steele Gallery, Seattle WA 2008
  • Recent Landscapes: Mahler Fine Arts, Seattle, WA 2003
  • How We Are: Ivan Wilson Fine Arts Center, Western Kentucky University KY 2001
  • Drawings & Paintings: Seattle Pacific University Gallery, Seattle, WA 2001
  • Fugitive Moments: Bandeleone, Seattle, WA 1998
  • The Figure: Io Salon, Seattle, Washington 1995
  • New Works Series: Houchens Gallery, Bowling Green, KY 1988
  • New Figure Works: Horse Cave Theater Gallery, Horse Cave, KY 1987
  • SELECTED GROUP ART EXHIBITIONS
  • Portrait Drawings, Sisko Gallery, Seattle WA   2014
  • Drawings: Investigations & Explorations, Sisko Gallery, Seattle WA   2012
  • Group: Contemporary Landscapes: Steele Gallery, Seattle WA 2010
  • Juried: UNCLAD, Gallery by the Bay, Stanwood WA 2008
  • Invitational: 40 Portraits 40 Artists, Gallery One Visual Arts Center, Ellensburg WA 2008
  • Group: Nine Hands Draw From Life, Ballard Works, Seattle WA 2007
  • Invitational: Artistically Engaged, The Washington State Convention & Trade Center, Seattle WA 2006
  • Invitational: Union College Drawing and Water Media, Grosvenor Gallery, Suni NY 2005
  • Group: Still Life Café, Seattle, WA 2002
  • Group: Art Detour 2002: Seattle-Wide Artist’s Open Studio Show, Seattle WA 2002
  • Invitational: Mother and Child, Juried Group Exhibition: Phinney Art Gallery, Seattle WA 2002
  • Group: Three Point Perspective, Studio Show, Seattle WA 2002
  • Invitational: Linkages: The Figure 2001, Fountain Head Gallery, Seattle WA 2001
  • Invitational: Powder Media, North Seattle Community College Gallery, Seattle WA 2000
  • Juried: Art Port Townsend, Port Townsend WA 2000
  • Group: Art Detour 2000: Seattle-Wide Artist’s Open Studio Show, Seattle WA 2000
  • Juried: Pacific Rim Art Exhibition Fall 2000, Seattle Exposition Hall, Seattle WA 2000
  • Juried: Pacific Rim Art Exhibition, Seattle Exposition Hall, Selected Exhibitor, Seattle WA 2000
  • Group: The Vulgar Librarian: Group Show, Seattle, WA 1999
  • Invitational Art Space Gallery, Seattle, WA 1998
  • Invitational: Leonardo Now, Bellevue Art Museum, Bellevue WA 1997
  • Group: Self Portrait Exhibition, Daniel Smith Gallery, Seattle WA 1997
  • Invitational: Faces and Figures, North Seattle Community College Gallery, Seattle WA 1997
  • Group: Daniel Smith Art Show, World of Art Gallery, Seattle WA 1996
  • Group: Faculty Show Academy of Realist Art, Martin Zambito Gallery, Seattle, WA 1994
  • Invitational: Paintings in Oil, North Seattle Community College Gallery: Seattle, WA 1994
  • Juried: Mail Art, Ivan Wilson Fine Arts Center, Western Kentucky University KY 1993
  • Group: Staff Show, Seattle Art Museum, Seattle WA 1993
  • Juried: First Place Award, Women in the Arts, Lexington, KY 1992
  • Juried: 26th Annual Juried Art Exhibition, Owensberg Museum, KY 1991
  • Group: Alumni Exhibition, Ivan Wilson Fine Arts Gallery, Western Kentucky University KY 1990
  • Juried: Best of Show Award: Fine Art 1988, Houchens Gallery, KY 1988
  • Juried: Nude ‘88, Lexington Art League, Loudon House Lexington KY
  • Juried: Best of Show Award, Ivan Wilson Fine Arts Gallery, WKU, Bowling Green, KY: 1998
  • Juried: Mid-America Art Exhibition, Evansville Art Museum, IN 1987
  • PUBLIC WORKS
  • 2008-2009 Prop Fabricator, Public Performer: Lucia Neare’s Lullaby Moon Series, A year-long theater piece performed in Seattle City Parks Sep
  • 2009 Seattle WA Documentary website http://www.lucianeare.org/lullabymoon.htm
  • 2008 Prop Fabricator, Public Performer, Lucia Neare’s Ooh La La, 05/01/08 Seattle WA
  • 2006 Cooper Portrait Project, 20 ft X 4 ft, Youngstown Cultural Arts Center, Seattle WA
  • 2005 Installation: Twenty-Two Portraits, One Community, Yates Gallery, Siena College, NY
  • 2003 Ceresota Flour Mural, 20 ft X 40 ft, Durham Historical Society, Durham PA Historically correct circa 1900. Ceresota Flour Ad recreated on the outside wall of the town’s historic gristmill.
  • PUBLICATIONS & LECTURES
  • 2011 Contemporary Drawing by Margaret Davidson, Watson-Guptill Publications, contributing artist
  • 2009 Landscape Painting by Mitch Albala, Watson-Guptill Publications, contributing artist
  • 2009 Key Note Speaker, Seattle University Existential Phenomenological Psychology Conference, Seattle WA, Giving Voice to Experience,
  • How Experience Becomes Evidence: Lecture Title “Art and Phenomenology”
  • 2007 Seattle Psychoanalytic Society and Institute, Psychoanalytic Perspectives on Visual Art Seattle WA: Lecture Title “How It Is: Self Portraits and Figure Studies”
  • 2005 Harvard University: World Phenomenology Institute Conference, Cambridge MA, Lecture Title “The Gesture: That Which Shows Itself In Itself”
  • 2005/2002 Catalog Cover Artist, Seattle Academy of Fine Art: Summer 2005 Spring 2002 Academy Catalogs
  • 1999 The Best of Sketching and Drawing, by Terry Sullivan, Rockport Publishers, 2 drawings
  • 1999 CD Cover Artist, Portrait of Grammy Nominee Folk Artist, Greg Brown: Solid Heart, Red House Records
  • 1998 Catalog Cover Artist, Academy of Realist Art: Fall Catalog
  • WORK EXPERIENCE–EDUCATION
  • Barbara Fugate Art Workshops, Seattle, WA, Since 2000
  • Gage Academy of Fine Art, instructor,  Seattle, Washington,Since 1993
  • Troy Art Center: Troy NY, 2005, Art Workshops
  • La Conner Art Workshops, La Conner, Washington, 2002, 2003, 2004
  • Artist in Residence, St. Rose Elementary, Longview, WA, 2003, 2002
  • Seattle Pacific University, Seattle, WA, 1999, 1995 ,Drawing Adjunct Professor
  • Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA July of 1993, 1994 & 1995, Painting & Drawing Instructor
  • Western KY University 1992-93, Art Education Adjunct Professor