An Eye for Color

Acclaimed artist, sculptor, educator, and Mountain Lakes resident Barry Zawacki and his wife Jody (an interior designer also professionally active in town), moved into Mountain Lakes in 1975, where they raised their daughter Cinda (MLHS Class of ’88). Growing up in nearby Hanover, Zawacki had been encouraged by his grandfather to follow his interest in drawing and talent for art from a very early age. A graduate of Hanover Park High School (Class of ’63), Zawacki played quarterback on the Hanover Park football team (in an era before Mountain Lakes and Hanover Park had become fierce football rivals). 

Zawacki earned his undergraduate degree in art at the University of Northern Colorado, in Greeley, Colorado, and earned a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Denver, specializing in painting. Later, he continued his education at the Parsons School of Design in New York City, in the fields of Ceramics and Illustration. After finishing his graduate degree at Denver, Zawacki was drafted into the U.S. Army and stationed at a U.S. base in Panama, where his background as an illustrator was first put to professional use in the preparation of training materials. Following his discharge from military service in 1971, Zawacki was offered the position of art teacher at the Montville Middle School, a position he went on to hold for 32 years, while also pursuing his professional work as a painter and sculptor. 

Living Through Art     

“I have always been a colorist,” says Zawacki, whose paintings explore “the importance of place in composition,” as well as the expression of “positive and negative space.” In such a perspective, “less is more,” Zawacki explains. He has also been strongly influenced in his sculptures by Indigenous American pottery of the American Southwest, seeking to portray warmth and texture in his work. 

After leaving the Montville School System, Zawacki worked as a Ceramics Professor at the College of Saint Elizabeth in Convent Station for five years, establishing that school’s ceramics program. He then served in the same capacity as an adjunct professor for another eight years at the County College of Morris, in Randolph. Zawacki found working with dedicated and interested college-level students particularly rewarding and inspiring. His first exhibition was in 1969 at his MFA graduate showing at the University of Denver, which also resulted in his first works sold as a professional artist, including one sold to the new Denver Children’s Hospital facility.

Keeping busy with new projects is important for an artist to maintain a rhythm, especially for a painter: “Rhythm is key,” advises Zawacki. Some of his recent work was showcased in a September exhibition entitled “Unseen Perspectives” at the Maxfield Engine House, on Main Street in Boonton, which is now operated by the New Jersey Highlands Coalition. In 2025, the Compton Gallery, also on Main Street in Boonton, presented “Barry Zawacki: 60 Year Retrospective.” 

Reactions to his ceramics and paintings have also been inspiring; Zawacki recalls one viewer telling him that his use of color made her feel joyous. “You can’t ask for anything better than that.”