Barbara Chira, Misfits Studio

Barbara Chira, Misfits Studio, uses art to investigate simultaneous and usually unrelated, or even conflicting, questions, concerns and/or emotions. Prior to AI, and for over 20 years as a professional artist, she tended toward installation art, often with additional series of small drawings or objects. Later, she transitioned to smaller dioramas.

Ultimately, her work became publicly interactive, and then collaborative with underserved groups in urban settings. Throughout her career, she’s been interested in history, current events, linguistics, religion, folklore, mythology, and cinema/TV, and their profound impact on cultural and personal narratives.

Her transition to AI video art has been an unprecedented opportunity to explore revolutionary tools to take her investigations to another level and fulfill her long-held dream of being a filmmaker. She's also interested in helping these tools to express their maximum potential, including such things as composition, lighting effects, color relationships and sound.

Prior to disabling health, Chira spent 17 years as a college art professor and academic program director, and during that time, 9 years as a gallery curator. She pioneered one of the first community-engaged art requirements for a baccalaureate degree in the US, forging partnerships with diverse organizations such as the Cleveland Clinic, NASA, and urban neighborhoods. She also led the color theory curriculum, and taught drawing, color theory, and intro animation and video courses. She lives with her husband and dog in a large Rust Belt city, and has one adult child.