Reina Barnes: expressing life through art BY Christa Smith

Do Something, Flavour Of The Month | May 11 2016

Young and enthusiastic, living, dancing and hula-hooping her way through life, this month’s featured artist is Reina Barnes. Reina is a very talented artist who has so much expression of life in her arts.

Born and raised in Williams Lake, Reina moved around for a few years after graduation, finding herself and experiencing life. After moving back to Williams Lake, Reina was featured in the Downtown Artwalk with her graffiti art.

Reina also paints with mixed mediums, draws with charcoal and pastels, and works with pottery. Currently, she is experimenting with mixing her charcoal and pastels to find just the right mix for her abstract arts.

Reina also likes to work with recycling to create repurposed art. She uses recycled wood for most of her paintings and old cupboard doors as canvases. She has worked on furniture pieces and can makeover just about anything.

Art and music together; Reina is learning to play the guitar and a mandolin that has been in her family for years. It’s just another form of expression and goes hand-in-hand with dance.

A few years back Reina was in an accident that left her recovering from a severe knee injury. “I just needed something to motivate me and get me back into life,” Reina says. “So I signed up for a hula hooping class at the rec center. As it turned out, the class was cancelled so I just went to Youtube to learn.” From there, Reina taught herself to hula hoop, connected with others and her passion grew from there.

“The health benefits of hooping are amazing; it improves blood circulation, flexibility and is a full body workout in less than half an hour,” says Reina. The hooping helped her to recover from her injuries and build strength in her back. “Hooping is part of the flow arts,” Reina explains, “I like to manipulate the hoops and move with my moods.” She doesn’t use routines, but depending on the day, Reina likes to just turn up her music and create; the freedom to go with the flow as a form of expression.

Reina has a fire hoop that she is working with and hopes to perform at Hootstock, The Forest Grove music festival July 22-24, where music, dance and spoken words come together to create a fun-filled weekend.