Gen 3 - Barbara (the beat generation artist)

Barbara, the youngest child of Josephine and Nash, was born in the worst of their poverty. In a shed with no heat, no electricity and no running water, she had the worst possible start in life. Luckily for her, aunt Anna saved the family from their despair when she was very young, and unlike her sisters and brothers, she has no recollection of that poverty. Still it instilled in her a deep dislike of the gaps in society, between those who have and those who have not. 

After a fairly typical teenage life, Barbs aged up to a young woman who wanted to discover life and art. As a lover of all things art, she started university mastering in fine art, together with her musically inclined boyfriend Doug. University was an eye opener, and showed her what life could be like. Free, exciting, different and filled with not just one type of art, but an whole array of artistic expressions. She fell in love with the lifestyle, the new political views, the poetry and writing and new ways to paint. 

She also met her cousin, once removed, Norman Stewart (grandchild of Frank) from Willow Creek, and the three of them; her, Doug and Norm, became a trio who did everything together. After university, the three of them moved to San Sequoia together (to her parents horror), and rented a house with another cousin from Willow Creek; Gordon (also a grandchild of Fran) who already lived and worked there as a painter. The four of them spend most of their days at the nearby art center, where they paint, sculpt, play music and discuss books and politics. They ate there in the evenings and spent their nights drinking and blowing bubbles. Norm was the odd one out. Secretly, he longed for love, for a wife, and a family, though he said nothing of this to the others as he knew they'd scorn something so common. His work at a local bank was bad enough, as the gang rejected the materialistic, and embraced a new way of life. As a result, he left the group in early 1955, moving back home to Newcrest. 

While Doug and Gordon found their expressions early, music for Doug and painting for Gordon, Barbara was still experimenting. She painted, sculpted, acted, danced and made jewellery, still unsure of where to find her own artistic expression, but loving every bit of the experimentation. 

For years, the Gordon, Doug and Barbara, live together in harmony. But as the 60s begin, things begins to change. Gordon starts talking about moving to San Myshuno, of the pop art movements there. That is bad enough for Barbara, but it's when she finds herself pregnant that her life is turned upside down. Doug does not only not want the baby (she knew that) but he's also entirely unwilling to have anything to do with it. He demands she'll get rid of it. She won't - and the break is complete. By this time Gordon is already set to move, and when he does, Barbara finds herself not just alone in the house, but alone and with no where to live as her landlord won't rent to a single mother without steady income. 

She turns to Alice for help, thinking she, who lives alone with another woman, will be sympathetic. She's right, and Alice takes her in, and helps her break the news to her parents and mend a relationship that has been strained. Barbara stays there until she has her baby girl, whom she names Abigail - or Abby for short - from a grandmother she never really knew but knows better after Alice has told her more about her. With Abby born, she's looking for a way to move back to San Sequoia, finding her place among the art community again.  

But the late sixties in San Seqouia is a dynamic place. Not only does Barbs find her way into a community, but that community is changing - and rapidly so. The music is moving from jazz to rock and a San Seqouia sound is forming. Counter culture is growing. Communes are started. Love, peace and protests are taking up the place. Barbara loves it, and goes from a beat generation artist to an emerging hippie in a new environment.