Paloma Barhaugh-Bordas

Paloma Barhaugh-Bordas was a summer Artist in Residence for July 8-12, 2019. During her residency Paloma investigated a number of materials as she engaged in her current bodies of work. She worked with images of mesh/netting scans that she tested with dye-sublimation (dye-sub) transfers onto a number of different fabrics. For permanent and consistent results, the Expanded Media dye-sub transfers need to fused to a polyester ground. After test coating fabrics with polyester, Paloma set forth on projects where the application of polyester coating became foregrounded in the pieces. Projects included painted on fence/mesh like patterns onto Xuan bamboo paper, these prepared papers then went through the dye-sub heat transfer process. The prepared areas will archivally hold the image while the unprepared areas will eventually vanish as a result of UV vulnerability. Paloma used scanner-bed composed high resolution scans of local invasive species for the dye-sub images printed on the Xuan bamboo paper. Another project from this process was painting polyester-base onto very thin Xuan paper. In this project after drying, the paper shrank where polyester was applied turning the paper and the mark made into a sculptural form. Lastly Paloma made a small edition of large format dye-sub prints on polyester mesh, the dense palette of Paloma’s landscape images dialogs with the light and air of the thick mesh.

Paloma Barhaugh-Bordas is an artist living and working in Upstate New York. Originally from Denver, Colorado, she received a BA in liberal arts from Carleton College in Northfield, MN, and an MFA in Printmaking at Rhode Island School of Design in Providence, RI. Paloma’s work adapts and appropriates the vernacular of the many regions she’s called home and traces the self-conscious search for cultural roots as a first-generation American.



Paloma Barhaugh-Bordas painted polyester-base on Xuan paper


Paloma Barhaugh-Bordas scanner-bed composed high resolution scans of local invasive species


Paloma Barhaugh-Bordas large format dye-sublimation prints on polyester mesh pictured with Aodi Liang


Paloma Barhaugh-Bordas detail painted polyester-base dye-sublimtion print on Xuan bamboo paper


Paloma Barhaugh-Bordas painted polyester-base dye-sublimtion print on Xuan bamboo paper


Paloma Barhaugh-Bordas pulling transfer off painted polyester-base dye-sublimtion print on Xuan bamboo paper