Barbara Crane Navarro

Painting and reading books were the most important part of my life ever since I was a small child.

After studying painting and other art techniques at R.I.S.D. I moved to California and continued studying painting, photography and art history for my BFA at the San Francisco Art Institute.

In 1977 I fell in love with Paris, and all of France, where I still live.

Since 1995 my life and my art have been transformed during winter trips to Venezuela and Brazil and time spent with Yanomami communities. My enchantment with the Rainforest evolved into burning my sculptures as performance art to protest against the ongoing destruction of the world's tropical forests and the degradation of the way of life of the indigenous peoples who depend on them for their existence.

Living among the Yanomami inspired me to write a series of fantasy adventure books for children that describe the way of life of the Yanomami communities and the magical connection they have with the nature that surrounds them.