Elizabeth: [00:00:00] As I mentioned in our previous text-only interview with Austrian visual artist Dominik Gegaj, I, Elizabeth, had the extraordinary opportunity in August and September 2025 to have a residency at the amazing and wonderful Virginia Center for the Creative Arts—VCCA—in Southern Virginia. I met so many extraordinary artists, writers, and composers.
I had a chance to interview two VCCA visual artist Fellows in early fall 2025. To re-cap, during a brief visit to DC, Dominik Gegaj, and VCCA visual artist Fellow, Veronica Barker-Barzel, and her partner Tom Kelly, met in DC and we walked around the National Mall and visited several museums.
Again, in my newbie attempt to audio record our walking conversations—a la “person on the street”—I recorded our chats on a hand-held recorder.
Alas, as I said before, I am no audio engineer, and I did not factor in the sound of the wind, and it was a very windy day. So, unfortunately, the audio quality of our recorded chats was unbearable. My apologies!
But we did have lively conversations with both these accomplished artists--which we were able to transcribe--so we’re keen to share them with you in written form, illustrated with images of them and their artworks, and including excerpts from their websites and summations of off-mic conversations.
And so, with more deep thanks to Dominik and Veronica for their time, collegiality and patience, we’re delighted to share edited transcripts of our conversations with them. We urge you to check out their respective websites, and maybe even buy their work!
L to R: Veronica Barker-Barzel, another friend/colleague, Tom Kelly at Touchstone Gallery, January 24, 2026
Here’s the edited transcript, plus additional text about my conversation with Veronica Barker-Barzel, and invite to an art exhibit opening January 14 through February 16, 2026, at DC’s Touchstone Gallery.
Elizabeth: Okay, we are now still walking along the National Mall, heading toward the National Gallery, and I’m gonna switch gears and talk to another colleague and friend who has also recently been at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, VCCA, which is in Amherst, Virginia. Veronica Barker-Barzel is a fabulous printmaker and mixed media artist who is based in Alexandria, Virginia. I’m gonna get her to introduce himself.
Veronica: Hi. I feel like you’ve already introduced me. I was thinking earlier today that, in a strange sense, I’m like a side city dweller.
Elizabeth: A side city dweller side?
Veronica: Yes. Side city dweller. Because, like, I [00:12:00] don’t really live in the city. I live in Alexandria.
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Vero Barker-Barzel Kelly
Elizabeth: Alexandria is a side city.
Veronica: Right,
Elizabeth: Okay.
Veronica: But, like, my entire life, like when I was a child living in Madrid, I wasn’t in Madrid, I was in a town next Madrid.
Elizabeth: Okay.
Veronica: Same in Naples.
https://www.behance.net/gallery/123437413/BirdCats-or-CatBirds/modules/701628789
Elizabeth: Let’s talk about your artwork. The work of yours that I have seen is printmaking--linocuts, woodcuts. You probably do other kinds of printmaking, as well as painting. So talk to us about your journey. You are older than you look, so you have a longer journey than an old woman like me would know about!
Talk to us about your early creative experiences. Do you have an early memory of your first creative impulse?
Veronica: So earliest memories. I do come from a very creative family. So, my mom was VA--[a visual artist]--and I just always remember her handing me art supplies. I don’t know if it was, like, an easy way to keep [00:13:00] me entertained so she could keep on creating herself. That’s what we do is as adults with little children.
But yeah, I always knew I wanted to do art of some form or fashion, whether it be like a photojournalism kind of thing, or writing or painting or printmaking. I always knew that I needed to be in the creative realm, and I just ended up continuing painting.
And then I discovered printmaking and now I mix the two.
Elizabeth: So talk to me about your discovery of printmaking, because there are so many different kinds of printmaking. So, (a) tell me about your discovery, and (b) tell me about the different variations of printmaking that you actually engage with.
Veronica: Discovering printmaking was also trying to discover my own voice, Since learning under my mother, I was always trying to find my own story versus telling her [00:14:00] story.
Elizabeth: Was she a printmaker?
Veronica Barker-Barzel Kelly – The Art League
Veronica: She was a painter. Okay. And she was a very powerful painter. So I needed to find my own voice--what I needed to tell versus what she was telling. And I think that’s where printmaking came about.
I had a mentor who told me I should look into printmaking because she thought my line would transfer better at that time. And it did. And I feel like printmaking has made me a better painter because it’s made me stop and evaluate, because painting can be really quick.
With carving you can’t really go back. Even with etching. You can carve into the plate, and you try to “barnish” it, there’s always a ghost.
Elizabeth: That is so interesting. I hear you. There’s a precision to it. On the initial surface, whatever it is, you make your mark, and then that mark stays. As opposed [00:15:00] to paint, which is much more fluid.
So tell us about which kinds of printmaking you’re engaged with, and what your thoughts and favorites are among the different types,
Veronica: I do a lot of linoleum--[lino prints]--because I really enjoy carving.
Also, I first started doing etching. And etching is this beautiful process where you can have so much detail on the plate, that you can’t necessarily have on the relief plate because you’re carving into it. You really should know how to draw right when it comes to etching.
And then I’ve done silkscreen, but silkscreen and I have a love-hate relationship. It either works or it doesn’t, and I bang my head and try to make it, force it to work. I waste a lot of paper that way.
But yeah, so the carving part is really very meditative to me, and it helps me plan and go through it. It’s constantly changing.
Elizabeth: [00:16:00] Are there printmakers who have most inspired you or given you a new window into what is possible. Not to put you on the spot, but but printmaking itself is a very old form, right? So, can you talk a little bit about your relationship to either previous printmakers or the long history of printmaking as a form itself?
From The Jackalope :: Behance Vero Barker-Barzel Kelly
Veronica: Yes. That has so many different layers to it. My undergrad was in literature and history. I love books, I love reading, and with printmaking, you have the printing press.
Veronica: You were asking about printmakers that I look up to. One person I would really like to mention was a teacher at MICA [Maryland Institute College of Art], which is the oldest art school in the US. Don’t quote me on this. [Note: “Founded in 1825 as the Maryland Institute for the Promotion of the Mechanic Arts, it is regarded as one of the oldest art colleges in the United States”]
Anyhow, Quentin Moley taught collagraph, which is printmaking where you can use any type of plate. You could use anything to make a plate. You could use cardboard, plastic. And usually that plate doesn’t last very long.
But also these really cool sculptures. He was maybe conscious, [00:18:00], I think, that you can do so much more with it. It doesn’t just have to be an addition or whatever. You can play with it.
Elizabeth: I’m going to pull you out of this art conversation for a minute. You’ve been around the world. Give us a quick summation of your worldly adventures before we go into the National Gallery.
Veronica: My worldly adventures. I was born to nomads. I was born in Washington, DC, and DC became the home base. Whenever we would leave, we would end up coming back here, whether for short periods or long periods.
And now it’s been a long period. I’ve been here for 14 years. Sounds ridiculous. But yeah, I grew up in Spain and Italy and early twenties in Japan.
Elizabeth: Okay, let’s switch to the present. You have a gallery or a studio rather, at the Torpedo Factory in Alexandria?
Veronica: I do.
Elizabeth: So first of all, tell us what The Torpedo Factory is. Give a little bit of just geographic background.
Veronica: Work is available for purchase, et cetera, et cetera
“Me and Brenda” - Vero Barker-Barzel Kelly IG: @JewfroartElizabeth: Since our conversation with Veronica--or Ronnie or Vero or other names she also goes by--was so short, I’m eager to excerpt more information about her from her website and the website of The Torpedo Factory.
BIO: Here’s her bio from the Art League and other sites:
Veronica Barker-Barzel is a Washington, DC–born printmaker and painter. Raised largely overseas while her father served with the U.S. Navy, she spent her formative years in Europe and later lived in Japan, experiences that continue to shape her artistic perspective. She earned a BA in English and History from the University of Maryland University College and completed a Post-Baccalaureate in Fine Art at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA), where she also served as a graduate teaching assistant in printmaking.
Barker-Barzel took her first etching class at The Art League and has remained deeply engaged with printmaking ever since. She is a member of Printmakers Inc. and the Torpedo Factory Artists’ Association, and has exhibited nationally and internationally, including solo exhibitions in Italy and work shown in Japan, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island. She is active in the Washington, DC metropolitan area and has received juror awards in Maryland and Virginia. Since 2018, she has taught printmaking through Discover Graphics.
Landscapes of sorts :: Behance
ARTISTIC STATEMENT
And here’s an Artistic Statement, gleaned from The Torpedo Factory and other websites:
Veronica Barker-Barzel is a printmaker and painter. There is a strong connection and interplay between her paintings and her printmaking works. Her style is often reflective of the places that she has experienced and stimulated by her personal background. Her work can resonate with a bit of Russian folklore, Greek mythology, and German expressionism occasionally fused with her own urban surrealism.
She incorporates symbolism throughout her art including both Western and Eastern cultural influences, and often anchoring her art-work with Celtic knot-work incorporated in the borders. Her style is often reflective of the places that she has experienced and stimulated by her personal background. Her work can resonate with a bit of Eastern European folklore,
Veronica was born in Washington, D.C. She grew up mostly in Europe and then spent her early 20’s in Japan. She received her bachelor’s in liberal arts from the University of Maryland, University College. Her formal art training included a Post Baccalaureate program at Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA).
https://www.instagram.com/jewfroart/
Veronica Barker-Barzel - Printmaker, Painter in Alexandria, VA, USA :: Behance