It's a how-they-met story that sounds like something out of a Hollywood movie. A St. Petersburg artist, whiling away an evening at a piano bar on the beach, sketches the portrait of a pretty, French-Canadian nurse on a napkin; three years later, they're married. When painter, teacher and former St. Petersburg Times illustrator Jack Barrett died in February, just two days shy of his 79th birthday, he left behind a trail of loved ones, from students to colleagues to comrades — none more devoted than his wife of more than 20 years, Louise.
"People met him an hour, and they said it changed their lives," she recalls with a francophone lilt.
This fall, The Arts Center commemorates Barrett's life and work with a retrospective of his paintings and sketchbooks titled A Soul's Journey. Through more than 30 of his trademark images — jazzy abstractions that often reveal figures hidden amid shapes and color — the exhibit follows the path of an artist who knew his destiny from age 7 but was sidetracked by a disapproving parent. After a stint in the Korean War, Barrett used his G.I. Bill benefits to attend The Art Institute of Pittsburgh, despite his father's wish that he become a banker. Following a career as an award-winning illustrator, which ended with his retirement from the Times in 1990, he turned his attention to painting full-time, at last setting free a voice that was all his own.
In doing so, he gained the admiration of local art aficionados, including former Times art critic Mary Ann Marger, author of the catalog essay for A Soul's Journey.
"He had such a loose style, which is the way he was," Marger says. "You wouldn't confuse his paintings with anyone else's, which is a very good thing to say about an artist."
For Lance Rodgers, curator and resident artist at Salt Creek Artworks, Barrett became a mentor whose energy and work ethic, even over a period of constant illness toward the end of his life, inspired the younger man. Now, Rodgers says, he walks by the studio at Salt Creek where Barrett worked — which has remained virtually untouched since his passing — for a reminder of the artist's devotion to his practice.
"When you look through his studio door in the afternoon … and his easel and his chair are sitting there, and there's a light that comes in through the window," Rodgers says. "It's like [he's saying], 'I'll be right back.'" Oct. 3-Nov. 1, The Arts Center, 719 Central Ave., St. Petersburg, 727-822-7872, theartscenter.org. —Megan Voeller
This article appears in Aug 27 – Sep 2, 2008.