Art from pathology slides

The Foothills artist creates paintings she calls "pathscapes" from pathology slides.

Those pathscapes are paired with some of Barton's traditional landscapes and are being exhibited at a show at Ventana Medical Systems, 1910 E. Innovation Park Drive in Oro Valley. The exhibit continues weekdays except holidays from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. through Jan. 1.

Barton's inspiration for creating landscape-like paintings from pathology slides came during a pathologists' seminar in Colorado organized by her late husband, Dr. Paul Bozzo.

During the presentation, two slides shown side-by-side caught her attention. She immediately thought of a diptych, the art world's term for a pair of images presented together.

"The lecturer was using words like 'architecture, clusters' and 'edges,' " Barton said. "Those are the same terms that I use in painting."

She immediately began making notes about the slide show and got the germ of an idea to pair her landscapes with paintings of slides.

Barton, 57, took pathology slides from her husband's research projects and examined them along with 100 slides by Ventana Medical Systems.

"I paired a total of 14 slides and had the images printed on canvas, called giclee, and then stretched them like a regular canvas," Barton said. "Then I painted on top of the giclee and made another image on it. I didn't simply paint the same scene, but found some commonality and painted it."

Barton said the pathscapes are meant to convey the feeling of landscapes, although they are much more abstract.

"Painting them is an intuitive process and some are more representational than others," she said. "But it was like painting landscapes because I was still concerned with edges, shapes and patterns."

The show at Ventana Medical Systems exhibits 10 pathscapes paired with 10 of Barton's landscapes.

Joan LaRue, 72, a Foothills painter who has been working at the craft for 40 years, calls Barton "a rising young star who is creative because she's done something no one else has done with the slide paintings. So many in the art arena are trying to emulate others; it's wonderful to see a painter thinking outside the box."

"When you find someone like Jane who tries something new and ties it into her plein-air approach, it's very creative," LaRue continued.

Barton also has painted many local ranches and calls landscape painting her primary interest.

"Sometimes I'll do a still life as a way to get away from landscapes and make them fresh when I get back to them," she said. "So I use still life to refresh my mind and hand. But I like to work from life in all my paintings."

Cathy Gawronski of Ventana Medical Systems said 13 of the 20 paintings exhibited have sold already, but will continue to be displayed until the end of the show.

"When Jane looks at a slide, she sees something very different, yet her work mimics the outside world," Gawronski said. "It's a nice way to bring pathology to the masses in art form instead of being so clinical. And it's also a wonderful way to benefit Paul's memorial fund."

Proceeds from the sale will go to the Paul Bozzo Memorial Fund, established at the University of Arizona to benefit residents in the Department of Pathology Residency Training Program.

If you go

● What: Exhibit of Jane Barton's "pathscapes."

● When: 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. weekdays through Jan. 1.

● Where: Ventana Medical Systems, 1910 E. Innovation Park Drive, Oro Valley.