But Barnett refuses to be confined to one medium.
Clay demands patience—weeks of drying, hours in the kiln—so she fills the waiting with photography, printmaking, and video work. It’s not restlessness, it’s rhythm. Each medium operates on its own timeline, and she’s learned to orchestrate them.
She’s also uninterested in the gallery pedestal. Instead of isolated objects behind glass, Barnett creates immersive environments where textiles, ceramics, and imagery converge. Her installations invite you into a world shaped by the objects she crafts.
That same expansiveness defines how she moves through the art world. In 2018, she founded the Black Artists and Designers Guild, building the support network she wished existed when she was starting out. Her 2023 book, Crafted Kinship, profiles over 60 artists of Caribbean heritage, the resource she searched for in graduate school and couldn’t find, so she made it herself.
Her advice to emerging artists is deceptively simple: build enough stability that your creativity has room to breathe. And then, no matter what, keep making.