Passion and Purpose: The Collecting Journey of Janine Sherman Barrois and Lyndon Barrois

By Sean Green, CEO, ARTERNAL

Entering the home of an art collector can feel like stepping into a living montage of a person’s soul. It feels personal, provoking, and maybe even invasive at times, but foundationally, it’s a privilege and a joy to enter the home, and mind, of an art collector. 

This is how I feel each and every time I step inside the Los Angeles home of famed television writer Janine Sherman Barrois and her husband and prominent visual effects artist Lyndon Barrios, whose passion for the art world has transformed their home into an oasis of contemporary wonder by black artists.

Standing at any one point in a room in their home has its joys and challenges. You can feel the color, emotion, and artistic purpose wherever your eye may land. Everything flows together in a seamless display, yet I always seem to have the same need…I want to know more. A desire to not only understand the intent of the artist, but I want to know the intent behind Janine and Lyndon’s purchase. 

When I entered the art world 12 years ago, I was focused on helping art galleries get more art into the right hands through software, and with ARTERNAL, I deal mostly with gallery owners who are looking for a way to improve their overarching sales processes. However, throughout my art journey, I was lucky enough to become acquainted with not just artists and gallerists, but also collectors like Janine and Lyndon. 

Their Personal and Professional Journey

Janine, an award-winning television writer who has written for such acclaimed series as Third Watch, ER, and Criminal Minds, along with her husband Lyndon, a special effects artist who has contributed to the Matrix Trilogy, Polar Express, Happy Feet, and Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, sat down with me to discuss their love of art, their careers, and what defines them as collectors.

“I grew up in a cool, middle-class family,” Janine said as we began. “We were always around the art world and were encouraged to be creative and go to museums. My mother taught kids who had learning disabilities and my father was an engineer and eventually an executive. We moved and experienced different places and cities and explored and learned to love new types of art.”

“What inspired you to go into a creative field?” I asked next. 

“Seeing black actors on TV and then in theatre was very influential to me. Seeing art made by people of color made my brain travel and envision something bigger than just domestic, suburban life.”

Through our conversation, I not only learned about Janinie and Lyndon as people, but I also found where their passion for art collection was born. Early in their marriage, they encountered friends, including Dr. Joy Simmons and television actress CCH Pounder, who had fantastic art collections. This experience showed them people not only appreciated art at a distance, but instead, they could actually live as a family with substantial pieces. This evolved into somewhat of a credo for the couple: You don’t have to just experience art in a museum, you can live with it too. 

From the Eyes of Art Collectors

As you must in the Barrois home, we continued the rest of our conversation on foot, with Janine and Lyndon taking me to various parts of their home to not only show me a piece, but also explain how it came to them. 

“Here is Victoria Cassanova,” Janinie began with excitement. “We have two of hers. This is charcoal on paper, and she actually did the official portrait of Kamala Harris with Freedom written underneath. She’s a really cool up-and-coming artist.”

Immediately, you can start to understand where and how their collection formed. As black professionals in creative fields, their ability to love and live with works by black artists made up a big part of who they were. 

We next moved to another room, art on every surface. The largest wall is covered inch to inch by a large painting on canvas. 

“This was one of the first ones we commissioned,” Janine said. “We had looked at our collection and realized we had a lot of work by men, so we wanted this space to be dedicated to a female artist.” 

The piece, by Shinique Smith, took nearly six months to complete, and when Smith would politely ask the couple their opinion on the progress or direction of the piece, they would simply reply with, “Do your thing.” 

“This is one of my favorites,” Janine says with purpose and happiness, moving to another piece. “It’s an Amoako Boafo painting on paper.” The stunning work, situated above a drink cart, is hung at a crossing point near the kitchen, in almost a nook, in their home. 

“You know,” Lyndon chimes in from behind me. “This is one of the last ones he did with someone smiling; We had a guest over who told me that you don’t see many of his portraits with smiles.”

“Really!?” Janine remarks, surprised. “That’s super cool. I didn’t even know that.”

Being with a power collector like Janine while she learned something new about one of her favorite pieces was a truly fun and inspiring moment. It solidified for me the joy and importance of owning art. You can capture something special without ever releasing it. 

Sean Green is the CEO of ARTERNAL, a software company that provides sales and relationship-building tools for the art world. To hear Sean’s entire conversation with Janine and Lyndon, visit ARTNERAL on YouTube for access to Step into the Artworld, a video podcast series where Sean sits down with friends he has made in the art world.