Barbara Sala

Biography
Barbara Sala is a naïve painter and a storyteller on canvas. Her motto is "Know thyself" and let the inner light shine through.
As a naïve painter, she uses the mysterious dreamlike quality of a childlike signature as a tool to weave in a challenging sincerity the raw contents of her life. In doing this she heals herself and gives the chance to the onlookers to find part of themselves in her expression.
Barbara Sala is a painter known internationally for her colorful symbolic naïve paintings.
Before settling in Montreal, she lived in Europe, Asia, Africa, the USA, South America and the Caribbean. In later years, she traveled to archeological sites in Mexico, Peru, Egypt and Guatemala.

She is a visionary who trusts the images from the unconscious without analyzing them. As a naïve painter she uses the mysterious dreamlike quality of a childlike signature to weave in a challenging sincerity the raw contents of her life.

She has participated in numerous group exhibitions in Quebec, Israel, Tunisia, France, Spain, Poland, Italy and in about 12 solo exhibitions in Quebec. She has won several awards.

Barbara is also the author of two children's books, Celestine and the Magical Geranium and Village of the Heart (both published by Trafford.com). "Insectual" is her illustrated fictionalized memoir (published by www.Booklocker.com).(www.barbaranaiveart.com).

She calls herself a storyteller on canvas mostly, although she has written and illustrated two fairy tales: "Celestine and the Magical Geranium" and "Village of the Heart" (out of print). Bruno Bettelheim writes: "Fairytales are a unique art form. Fairytales are the bridges between our conscious and unconscious world. When naïve painters paint they become storytellers and in their childlike style they weave dreamlike fantasies and symbolic tales on canvas."

She is also inspired by her "twisted roots", war, pain, and suffering. She renders these images on paper in a black-and-white-charcoal-and-ink setting. Negative and positive challenges of her life are transformed into hope-inspiring symbolic images and the animals are messengers of this wisdom, which arises out of the unconscious.
She is a visionary. Naïve art comes from the heart, that's why naïve painters are also called "Painters of the Heart". Barbara trusts the images from the unconscious without analyzing them. Michel Forest, Director of the Musee international d'art naïf de Magog, Qc (www.Museedartnaif.com) writes: "Barbara Sala's world is the world of an adult who explores adult themes in an ongoing introspective conversation with herself... that she generously shares with the public."
Dr. Rigas Bertos, former chairman of the Department of Art History McGill University, Montreal, writes: "Barbara has managed in her paintings to create a retrospective of human life from the first hesitant steps of youth to the later, even more, hesitant step of the old. She has painted for all of us."
In February 2015 she published "INSECTUAL, the Secret of the Black Butterfly" with www.Booklocker.com. It is a fictionalized biography that takes place in the Congo, Bavaria and in a psychiatrist's office.
Recently Barbara started to create naïve clay sculptures, which is her main creative activity for the time being, having had a heart attack in 2020. She is healing every day a little. Today she is 85 years old and determined to continue to be creative. She is also a member of the Westmount Poetry Group, sponsored by the Westmount Library in Montreal.
Jean Carriere, a Montreal poet, wrote about Barbara Sala:
"Barbara Sala's art has many facets
Poetry is just one of her assets
Her paintings are surreal
And make the imagination reel."

Montreal, July 2022