BarrazaArt

Barraza Art
PO Box 611, Silver City, NM 88062
505-388-5620

Manuel Fred Barraza was born in 1955 in Silver City. New Mexico and grew up outside of Silver City in the small communities of Fort Bayard and Santa Clara. Growing up in the foothills of the Gila National Forest has given Barraza a bonanza of subjects to paint, draw and sculpt. He works in a multitude of art forms and media including printmaking, painting, illustrating and sculpture.

In 1973. Barraza joined the United States Marine Corps. He was stationed in Southeast Asia (including Hong Kong and Okinawa) for part of his time in the Marines. The landscape left an impression on him and has influenced his art work. After four years in the USMC he returned to Silver City and graduated from Western New Mexico University with a bachelor's degree in fine arts. He studied under the direction of well-known artists/professors Dorothy McCray, Cecil Howard and Claude Smith.

Upon completion of his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree he took on a day job with the New Mexico State Library's Rural Bookmobile Southwest. Twenty-three years later, he is still delivering books throughout Southwest New Mexico to small rural communities. Much of Barraza's art depicts scenes from life that he has experienced through the patrons of the bookmobile and the landscape that he has traveled through.

Barraza has created book covers and illustrations for over a dozen books by writer Dutch Salmon and has illustrated the bilingual book "The Cactus Wren and the Cholla" by Valerie Garcia. He has designed numerous posters for special Silver City events, the United States Forest Service and New Mexico Libraries. Barraza's art work has been shown throughout New Mexico in various shows and galleries. He continues to work in many mediums and plans to work full-time on his art when he retires from his State bookmobile job in two years.

We are in the process of setting up this web site.
Please e-mail me if you have questions at barrazaart@hotmail.com
Thank you for visiting.