Erica Barker; artist overcame odds

In 2007, Erica Barker went to a Haddonfield cafe to attend the first exhibit of her paintings.

The show was especially meaningful because, born without use of her arms, she had worked only with pencils and brushes held between her teeth.

"Painting," she told an Inquirer interviewer at the time, "probably kept me from going crazy."

On Monday, Sept. 15, Ms. Barker, 39, of Cherry Hill, who was born with arthrogryposis multiplex congenita, died at home.

The cause of death has not been determined, her brother, Tony, said.

Ms. Barker told the interviewer in 2007 that her arm and leg muscles and joints had not fully developed before she was born.

"I believe my artwork would be of the same caliber if I could use my hands," she said. "But I think it would be much, much different because my experiences would be different."

Given into foster care when she was 5 by her single mother, she was adopted at 8 by Richard and Diana Barker of Haddonfield, who raised several disabled children.

"What I learned most from the Barker family is that disability is a challenge and nothing more," she told the interviewer.

A 1994 graduate of Haddonfield Memorial High School, she studied art at Camden County College and moved to her own apartment when 21.

Kieran Michael Kiss, a small-business owner who was with her in high school art classes, recalled that "she was the only student we had who was in a wheelchair."

She was helped, he said, by "a service dog, a black Labrador named Sam."

But, Kiss said, "she was very independent. Sam did most of the things she couldn't do for herself, like open a door or pick things up off the floor."

Kiss said that "once you got to know her," the wheelchair "faded into the background. She was very bright, had a great sense of humor, was a brilliant artist."

And so, he said, "she strove to live a life of independence and dignity."

Ms. Barker, Kiss said, "didn't want to be known as the girl who painted with her mouth. She wanted her work to be judged on her own merits, as an artist, not a disabled artist."

After the Haddonfield show, Kiss said, her art was displayed in other shows.

Rocelyn Pili was a high school student in 1995 when she met Ms. Barker, a college art student at the time.

"Throughout the years," Pili said, "she was my best friend."

Pili, an interior designer for the retailer Pottery Barn, recalled that Ms. Barker "was highly intelligent, highly resourceful, and very independent."

But she had not had recent art shows because "she had an issue with her teeth, which were her hands."

Pili said "she was talking about going back to college, trying to figure out if she should go into studying theology but not sure how she would use that."

It was, Pili said, "one of the things she and I would go back and forth and talk about."

Ms. Barker's brother said "her goal was to live life as an adult, like everyone else did. She just needed some support systems to achieve that."

Tony Barker, an artist who uses a wheelchair because of spina bifida, noted that his sister did "a lot of abstract work and surreal work."

"She did a little bit of all of it. She worked in paints, pen and ink, pencil."

Through it all, he said, "her temperament has been and always was delightful. She had a fantastic smile, a clear, witty sarcasm, a remarkable ability to make regular-life situations amusing."

Besides her brother, Ms. Barker is survived by brothers Christopher, Theodore, Jamie, and William, and sisters Elizabeth, Victoria, Juliet, and Ashley.

Memorial services are pending.

Condolences may be offered to the family at the Murphy-Ruffenach Funeral Home, 2239 S. Third St., Philadelphia 19148.