Volleyball player finds balance in art, music

Barby Ream, emerging artist, curious student, and varsity volleyball player, has learned a thing or two in her 20 years. Her first rule of thumb is to maintain a balance among the many facets of her complex life. And, if there are secrets to her creative process, they might be found in a playful willingness to twist and turn whatever materials are in hand, whether those materials are the disjointed pieces of a sculpture, words on a page, or the extremes of a musical scale.

	Barby Ream, '00: All-conference volleyball player; professional artist.

When Ream, a Seattle native, came to Whitman in the fall of 1996, she wasn't quite sure where her life was headed. Now, four falls later, not only has she helped lay the foundation for a winning volleyball tradition, she has developed and showcased her skills as a professional artist while diving headlong into exploration of other arts — music and writing among them. There also were spare moments for a few seasons of varsity basketball. Not bad for someone who landed at Whitman at the last minute, and who wasn't sure she was staying once she got here.

As a high school senior, Ream gave serious thought to attending Columbia University, which was recruiting her to play volleyball. "All I really knew at the time was that I wanted to go to an academic-minded school," she recalls. "I wasn't interested in a school where athletics would come first and require a huge time commitment."

When Ream and Columbia failed to click, she accepted a late opening at Whitman, where older sister Kathy Ream had just graduated.

As her first year began, Ream wasn't certain that Whitman was anything more than a stopgap measure. That perspective soon changed. "My professors were an inspiration right from the start. Ted Stein in my core class and Irv Hashimoto in my language and writing class were just wonderful. My whole attitude about education started changing."

As Ream sampled classes in search of an academic major, she quickly settled on studio art and eventually switched to art history. "I have always liked to make things," she says. "I always took shop classes. When I was younger, my dad introduced me to one of his friends who has a glass-blowing studio in Seattle, and I had fun working there when I was in high school."

Ream complemented her Whitman studies by taking classes in metal casting and fabrication at the University of Washington and the Pratt Fine Arts Center in Seattle. While attending Whitman, she also gained a rock-solid understanding of welding by taking industrial welding classes at Walla Walla Community College.

By the fall of 1998, Ream was making ambitious plans for an unofficial yet impressive independent study project. She introduced herself to the owner of the Art by Fire gallery in Seattle's Ballard neighborhood, talked about her interest in metal sculpture, and was soon rewarded with an unexpected vote of confidence. Ream was given carte blanche to exhibit her work in June 1999, as part of the annual Ballard Art Walk.

Her project, "Take Time for Music," grew to include about 20 fabricated steel representations of various musical instruments, including the guitar, bass, and cello. The whimsical yet handsome pieces shimmer with a natural patina that reflects the beauty, joy, and rhythm Ream sees and hears in music.

"My first show turned into a huge experiment," Ream says. "It was a thousand little lessons rolled into one. Until the very end, I kept expecting the whole thing to crumble. Everything came together, though, and what I finally learned was to trust my own instincts. I learned how important it is to stick with your own style, your own way of doing things, and to have confidence in yourself in any situation."

The Ballard Art Walk, a coordinated effort between neighborhood restaurants and art galleries, allows art patrons to visit several exhibit openings on the same evening. "It was a wonderful night," Ream says. "There was tremendously positive feedback from so many people," including a number of art professionals who asked for her portfolio. "One of the other gallery owners closed her shop for a short time so she could come and see my work. It was a great confidence booster."

This fall, after she returned to campus, there was a new and appreciative host for her summer exhibit. Ream was taking a history of jazz class from David Glenn, associate professor of music, when she borrowed one of his instruments to use as a model for her developing art project. "We were talking later about her exhibit, and I suggested the possibility of displaying some of her work in the Hall of Music," Glenn says.

Pieces now on display in the Hall of Music include three elongated guitars draped on a wall. Clinging to another wall is a bowed-in-the-middle bass with four strings jutting out at odd angles. "There is so much tension in that piece it looks as if it's ready to explode off the wall and fall to the floor," Ream says. "I still walk around it, rather than under it. I love pieces that create visual tricks and mysteries, that have the power to mess with your mind a little bit."

Other pieces tucked away in the nooks and crannies of the Hall of Music include a closed guitar case with broken strings bursting through in all directions and an elegant, life-sized bass, one that sits not too far from a smaller bass whose vertical dimension has been reduced and crunched at three or four points.

The fact that Ream shaped her first professional exhibit around music is not surprising. She plays the guitar, saxophone, and piano, continues to take voice lessons through the Whitman music department, and has taken a number of music theory classes.

"Studio art and music are a lot alike," she says. "With both, you begin with an idea or concept and improvise as you go along. I didn't plan any of the art pieces in my first show. I just started twisting and turning them, and they came out the way they did. Jazz is a lot like that, in that you have a basic scale you can mess with. It's great when it turns out, but you don't really know until you get there."

Ream says music serves as both inspiration for her artwork and as a point of balance for life in general. "I have different interests and I need to keep a balance. I need to go from my sculpture to the library, or from volleyball practice to the music building. Those areas are parts of my life, and I need them all to be happy."

Her final season of competitive volley-ball got off to a great start this fall. An athletic six-foot middle blocker, Ream was named to an all-tournament team at Colorado College, twice earned Player- of-the-Week honors in the Northwest Conference, and was named to the all-conference first team. She credits coach Dean Snider for building a winning program and for being the right coach for a school like Whitman. "There is much more to his life than just volleyball," she says. "He reads as much as we do on our road trips. He plays the piano, he has a wonderful singing voice, and he has his family. There is a balance to his life.

"When it comes to volleyball, Dean's intuition is good," Ream continues. "He understands what we as players need to do if we want to improve. He also listens to our input, and he understands that we are students first."

While Ream isn't the type to start making post-Whitman plans, she sees her artwork playing a central role. "I have tons of ideas when it comes to art and sculpture," she says. "If there are people out there interested in what I want to make and create, then I'll pursue those ideas. If not, and I end up working at McDonald's, well, I'm willing to take my chances."

Of course Ream doesn't see her future resting on art alone, under any circumstances. "Art may be my profession, but I'll still be going to the gym to play ratball, and I'll still be spending time at the library. I'll still be reading books and playing my guitar."