Artist Statement

I am a gay, mixed race woman who has PTSD. Each day involves sorting through emotions, feelings, and memories my body carries with me from my childhood and young adult life. I am slowly confronting and releasing the hurts I carry with me and learning to heal both my mind and body. Cutting woodblocks and hiking in the woods of the Pacific Northwest are soothing and healing processes I use to reconnect my mind and body. Coast Salish ocean, trees, rocks, and dirt are much older than my own hurts I carry with me. Being in these physical spaces grounds me, shapes my perspective, and helps release some of the pressure on the invisible memories my body is tense with.  

Printed like tattoos on skin, symbols that represent my mixed race heritage, stories from my childhood, the Pacific Northwest, and Queer Culture, cover my hand-pulled woodblock prints. With this storytelling, I seek to remove the passive acceptance of accessible exoticism and redefine being a mixed race woman who is white-adjacent. I seek to widen the viewfinder for others to include my life’s intersections of gender, race, and sexuality. 

Bio

Nikki Jabbora - Barber (she/her), a gay Seattle-based printmaker and teaching artist, was born in Bellingham, WA to a Lebanese-German mother and Anglo-Swedish father. Her work focuses on her mixed race identity, centuries of storytelling, and womanhood through symbolic depictions of herself, flora, and fauna.

Nikki regularly teaches visual art classes in the greater Seattle area, including at Pratt Fine Arts Center, Coyote Central, Pilchuck Glass School, and others. Recently, she has had her work exhibited at Bainbridge Island Museum of Art (solo exhibition) and Seattle Art Museum Gallery. Nikki is regularly invited to jury for organizations like Seattle Print Arts and Davidson Galleries for her knowledge and skill in the specialty field of printmaking.

CV

Link to artist CV here.