This month’s Artist Spotlight shines on Meghan Barlow from Monroe, Washington. She was born in Davis, California and is an EvCC running start student.
When asked what do you like about taking pictures? she replied:

“It’s so interesting to learn all the intricate details and it’s a really nice challenge…I love figuring things out… It’s like its own little problem you can solve.”
The art is so free-there are rules but…there’s nothing that really confines what you can do”. It’s a freeing and challenging experience at the same time.”
Barlow leans toward outdoor photography. When asked about it she said: “My first couple of pictures and even now, have been nature based…Birds or trees or the pretty little flowers I find. Now I am trying to push those boundaries and explore elsewhere…but nature photography is where I tend to go.”

When asked about what drives her to create art, the answer was: “When I am creating my art piece, I have a general idea, and I’ll put my spin on it and I’ll draw my inspiration from some other thing and I’ll try to make it my own and other times I’m listening to music and an idea will pop into my head and this idea fits into a song and an image creates itself and I need to make that. It’s both music and what I see other people doing.”

Barlows answer to the: Do you have a favorite Artist/Photographer question was: “Ansel Adams is a huge inspiration/photographer for me. I love seeing his work and how much detail he was able to get into his photos. That is the dream. It’s really impressive how he manipulates his shadows and how much time he spent in the darkroom forming those images.”

I asked her, How’s your interaction with other students? “Normally I’m more of the quiet type but after coming to the photography program I see myself talking more, and talking more about the assignments and seeing what other people think and their different approaches and that’s really interesting to see.”

Our final question was, What’s different about your pictures? She answered: “During my creation process I tend to focus on a sense of peace that photography gives me and I try to imbue that into my photography. That’s why I have a lot of nature based stuff, because I grew up with (access to) the woods and that’s a comfort to me – A lot of my photography is putting that piece into art. I’m trying to expand and see where I can go and where I can push myself. My dream would be to work for National Geographic as a photographer.”