Longboat Key artist Barbara Harrison is bringing it all together

When artist Barbara Harrison created her “Clouds in the Sky” series, it turned into a full-body workout. Harrison, 79, was using a vice to bend rectangular strips of brass into the delicate sculptures that now hang in the trees outside her Longboat Key home. They nearly disappear in the Spanish moss-laden trees out front, but Harrison loves the natural elements.

“The wind turns it just as it moves clouds,” Harrison said. 

Now a full-time Longboat Key resident, Harrison grew up in Manhattan, attending ballet classes and slowly learning basic art skills as a child. Family legend has it that when she was 5, Harrison’s mother gave her some clay, with which the girl proceeded to make the entire circus.

“My mother gave me clay and I went to town on that,” Harrison said. 

She studied art throughout her childhood and early adult years and began turning to art as a career as she neared 30. Though she often works in brass, copper was her first medium. She was determined to make art work on her own terms, through her own prowess. So she got to work bending metal. 

“I was not going to have a studio unless I paid for it myself,” Harrison said. “I sold 10 copper wall structures and that’s how I got my studio.”

In the Northeast, Harrison worked mainly on corporate commissions once she built a following. She made abstract sculptures for companies to hang in their headquarters and stores, including the Neiman Marcus store in Tampa. When she got down to Florida in the early '90s, her agent began getting her more residential commissions. Her art then hung in condo buildings along Longboat Key, including the Water Club, Players Club and L’Ambiance. 

“I could drive up and down the Key and see buildings that had my art,” Harrison said. 

Now, Harrison is a longtime Longboater with 19 years on the island. She spent 10 years on Anna Maria Island before moving south. She works on her art, which mostly consists of sculpture, and has created several series over the years, including a topography series and one called Earth Events. A certified yoga teacher, Harrison has also gotten back into teaching after scaling back during the pandemic. She drives to Suncoast Technical College twice a week to teach. The flow of her life, in both yoga and her art, is a continuation of her childhood dreams. 

“I’m happy to be doing both,” Harrison said. “I feel like the two strands of my childhood have come together.”

As a child twirling on her toes and working on her balance, Harrison didn’t realize she was laying the groundwork for her eventual yoga teaching, nor did she think that the clay zoo would eventually lead to a prolific career in sculpture. But her longest-lasting passions have been the ones she first cultivated as a kid, and even her career is starting to come full circle. With her most recent exhibit, "Twisted," at the Chasen Gallery, Harrison has come back to where she first displayed her work in this area. 

“I was one of Chasen’s artists back when they were on Palm (Avenue) 25 years ago,” Harrison said. “I never thought I would be with this gallery again.” 

Much of her work these days is less abstract, with photos of Earth and planetarium simulations fueling her inspiration, but the end result often still appears as an intriguing twist of wires and melted metal before you realize what you’re looking at through Harrison’s eyes. Metal has long been her medium, whether it’s brass, copper or aluminum, with her paintbrush the blowtorch. She’s bent, melted and destroyed countless sheets of plastic and metal along the way to creating her oeuvre and has no plans to stop anytime soon. 

“The idea comes first and then I determine the material,” Harrison said. “I’m breaking a little bit of new ground every time.”