barbarahallwwiicartoonist

[barbarahallwwiicartoonist]

Barbara Hall (Fiske) (Calhoun)

Born in Arizona, Moved to Babylonia! -- ".King Tut," by Steve Martin

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There's been a good deal of interest lately in the art and the life of Barbara Hall, Artist cartoonist and cofounder of Quarry Hill Creative Center, in Rochester, Vermont.

This is her centenary, 100 years since she was born. A beautiful girl from the wild west, she refused to be the Southern lady her mother wanted her to be. At the age of 11 she wrote an essay about the Jewish people and how they were civilized long before her ancestors were born. Her ancestors were of the planter class in North Carolina and Virginia before & during the Civil War; They were descended from revolutionary patriots, her great uncle or a great cousin or something was Robert E Lee's right hand man, and she was connected to George Washington Thomas Jefferson, and all the way back to the Edward the third in her genealogy. Her mother wanted her to have nothing to do with Yankees, even though they were living in Tucson , Arizona. She told the tale of how she met a handsome Mexican boy, and both of them would get on their horses & gallop out into the desert to be together. But by the time they got there, it was late in time to go back to school, or they would be missed & both would get in trouble. So they never did anything. Barbara could "always draw." From early childhood she was a natural artist. Most of the people in her family played an instrument, or had some other talent. But instead of painting China Or playing the violin in the Tucson Symphony Orchestra, as her cousin isabella did, Barbara went to Los Angeles, studied art, And then took off for New York City in 1940. She had planned to Study at the Art Students' League, but there she met a teacher who snickered at her artwork and said it was "clever." Infuriated, Barbara stormed out and took off for Harvey comics, which then published The Black Cat and other superhero adventure stories. During World War II most of their stories centered around fighting the Japanese and the Germanss. Barbara began drawing a strip called "Girl Commandoes," abouta nurse named Pat Parker who had gathered together women from all over the world including an attractive Asian girl and a plump American girl, tomfight the Axis. Barbara remembered drawing " The Black Cat,"and she probably did, but we have not been able to find any definitive examples of her work on that strip. Also worked on "Honey Blake, The Blonde Bomber," Which she may have had a hand in inventing. Around 1943 she met my father, Irving Fiske, A freelance writer, WPA re-write man, who had worked on the "WPA Guide to New York City," Playwright, And in the future, the other founder of Quarry Hill.

Irving at some point suggested to Barbara that she should give up cartooning for paining

where her mother had gone to 1912 to try to save a life of her brother who had tuberculosis.

September 9, 1919 in Tucson, Arizona, she lived a wild and unusual life, With great joy's and terrible difficulties,and died

on April 28, 2014 in Hartford, Vermont.

"Born in Arizona, moved to Babylonia," From by Steve Martin

She was an artist who worke