touching the Sacred in Life through lyrical, narrative sculpture

Creating is how I enter into a relationship with the Sacred.  Using ‘real magic’ I interact with real ‘stuff’ such as steel, clay or copper and then faithfully watch as it is magically transformed into an object of beauty and meaning.  To take an intangible concept or vision and then make it manifest in the physical world is to literally hold the power of creation in my hands.  We all have this power to co-create and enter into this relationship with the Sacred.  If the relationship is true, that which is created will bring forth love, light, growth and joy.  My art is a witness to this magical process.

We "have come into the world... to be filled with Light, and to shine.  The Sacred will be reborn within us and among us when we remember, again and again, the Light, naming it at the heart of one another and knowing that we carry it for one another."          Mary Oliver, Pulitzer Prize winning poet

Sculpting has always been a part of my life.  As a child I did creative things like carve mushrooms and pine wood derby cars, fashion space ships out of boxes and build forts.  During college one summer, I worked as a Volunteer in Mission at Ghost Ranch, NM.  Here I formally recognized my gift for sculpting as I created a panorama of the sandstone cliffs surrounding a steer’s skull, out of clay.  From then on, it was college courses, employment at a bronze foundry, workshops with various master sculptors and my own dodged pursuit of various techniques that has helped me refine my own style and focus.  And this magical journey continues to this day at my studio, found at the base of the Rocky Mountains, in a place known as Denver.

RESUME/CVC FOR PAUL R. BAREIS

Training/Experience

  • 1979  Ceramics Workshop with Jim Kempes at Ghost Ranch, NM

  • 1980  Figurative Sculpt Course at the University of SD

  • 1981  Metal Chaser at Del Weston Art Foundry, Santa Fe, NM

  • 1987  Drawing Course at University of Chicago, IL

  • 1990  Sculpting Workshop w/ Ted Engri, public art, Taos, NM

  • 1997  Sculpting Course w/ Mostafa Naguib, figurative, Chicago, IL 

  • 2013 - present, Fire it up! Metal Sculpture Workshop w/ Connie Burkhart & Tom Nichols at Ghost Ranch, NM 

  • 2016 Became a full-time, professional artist

  • 2023 Fall, Clay and Mixed Media w/Janey Skeer, Art Students League of Denver

  • 2024 Winter, Dynamic Portrait Sculpture w/Patrick Stephenson, Art Students League of Denver


Exhibitions & Installations

  • 1/2024 “Heart Pulse” accepted into juried show, “Terra / Earth / Ground” at Core Art Space

  • 6/2023 “White Protects Black (and visa versa)” accepted into juried show, “Lost & Found: Art with Found Objects” at The Collective Community Arts Center

  • 6/2023 “Motion” auctioned off at Spoke N Motion Dance Performance

  • 6/2023 “Life’s Balancing Act” temporary installation at Apogaea, Valdez, CO

  • 10/2021 - 22 Crestone Open Studios, Crestone, CO

  • 2020 - 22 Wrote and published, Educational Beacons of Hope, available on Amazon

  • 9/2018 - 19 Stapleton Open Studios, Denver, CO

  • 8/2018 “Yearning” exhibited at the Cube, Denver, CO

  • 6/2018 “Fluid Grace” auctioned off at Spoke N Motion Dance Performance 

  • 5/2018 Featured artist at the Light Rail Gallery, Arvada, CO

  • 3/2018 Stapleton Pop-up Gallery, Denver, CO

  • 9/2017 Stapleton Open Studios, Denver, CO

  • 4/2017 “Transcendence” exhibited/became part of the permanent collection at the Dahl Fine Arts Center, Rapid City, SD

  • 3/3017 “Transcendence” exhibited at West Hills Village, Rapid City, SD

  • 3/2017 Aurora Cultural Art District showing at Stanley Market Place, Aurora, CO

  • 11/2016 Two person show at the BitFactory Gallery, Denver, CO