A nationally recognized artist, Polly Barton was born in New York City. She studied Art History at Barnard College and has lived and traveled in Paris, Florence, Rome, India, and Japan. Formative for the young artist was working as a personal assistant to Helen Frankenthaler.

In 1981 she moved to Kameoka, Japan to study with master weaver, Tomohiko Inoue, living in the religious heart of the Oomoto Foundation.

Barton continues to weave on her Japanese tsumugi silk kimono looms and shows her woven ikat paintings on both coasts; her work collected by the Art Institute of Chicago, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, The Community Hospital Foundation of Monte Rey, and important private collectors. Her work has been published in numerous magazines including Hali Magazine, FiberArts, Surface Design Journal and American Craft. She is a member of the Textile Society of America, and other textile organizations in the US.

Besides her daily studio practice, Barton enjoys lecturing and teaching workshops on ikat to guilds and conferences around the country.