Barbara Bash is a calligrapher, illustrator, author and performance artist. She has written and illustrated many books on natural history for adults and children. She also teaches workshops in illustrated journaling and expressive brush calligraphy.

Barbara spent her childhood in Barrington, Illinois and studied dance and drawing in college before immersing herself in the study of calligraphy. This art form led her to a successful career as a graphic artist and teacher of book arts, first in the Bay Area and then at Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado. During these years she collaborated with storytellers, dancers and musicians in performance. She also began to study the natural world through writing and illustrating books for children. The research for her books has taken her all over the world and opened her to the practice of illustrated journal keeping. She now lives and works in the Hudson Valley of New York where she creates her books and does expressive calligraphic performance art.