Nicole Strasburg,
Juror for the 2023 Grandparent Portrait Show
How appropriate that Nicole Strasburg is the juror for the 2023 Grandparent Portrait Show, having been a student of art teacher Audi Love, who founded the project, when she was in high school. Originally from Salt Lake City, Utah this now California artist moved to Santa Barbara at the wee age of 4 when her father took a job at the nearby university. Always terribly shy, as the youngest of 4 children, she spent much of her time seeking a quiet refuge away from the bustle of the large family. In these long stretches of sought after solitude Nicole lived in her own world hatching plans and daydreaming, often finding her personal sanctuary outdoors, lying in the grass staring at the sky.
This world grew to encompass a place that is often depicted in Nicole’s current paintings. Vast stretches of open space, an endless horizon, and the quiet contemplation that takes place when spending time alone outdoors. “Nature is an inspiration,” she says, “and always brings me back to center, puts me in perspective of my place in the world and offers comfort in its noisy silence.”
While painting is Nicole Strasburg’s primary medium, printmaking is the constant diversion. After years of pursuing her career in painting Nicole wanted to return to drawing and found printmaking a good vehicle in which to study mark making and composition. Her focus while studying art at UC Santa Barbara was charcoal drawings, subscribing to the philosophy of Georgia O’Keefe that if you can’t say it well in black and white, why bother with color.
Her style of painting evolved over a period of time and was molded by several influences. One in particular, when she arrived home from living in Paris and had no means of purchasing materials, a friend offered cabinet wood from his brother’s shop. When the panels ran out, she sanded the surface in order to have something to paint on. This act of sanding was then folded into the process of building surfaces. Printmaking was yet another layer to this evolution, the back and forth that occurs in etching, cross hatching to create mass and shadow influenced the method paint was applied to the wood surface. Smaller marks in many layers were woven together to create a visual fabric of color that made up the landscape imagery.
A devout studio painter, Nicole visually records her inspiration with sketches and photographs while out on walks with her dogs. Composing and editing are done back in the studio from the series of images taken in the field. “Simplification of the environment to create a more universal experience within the painting is my goal,” she says. “Good design will always take precedence over being true to the particulars of any location.”
Nicole is represented locally by Sullivan Goss allowing her to spend most days in her studio with her two border collies where she is frequently visited by her husband, who kindly reminds her to go outside.
John Houchin,
Juror for the 2021 and 2017 Grandparent Portrait Shows
A graduate of Washington University School of Fine Arts in St. Louis, I began my college career in traditional arts but quickly moved into multi-media under the influence of one of my professors Howard Jones, an artist who worked in interactive sound. Enrolling in the elective course ‘Dance as A Creative Art Form’ drastically changed the direction of my work: After studying dance theatre production, modern dance, ballet and gymnastics I eventually moved to New York to attend the Alwin Nikolais and Murray Lewis school, also studying with Merce Cunnigham.
Within the first year of living in New York I visited friends in Los Angeles, and fell under the spell of California, moving to Santa Barbara to attend UCSB to pursue a second undergraduate major in painting while obtaining a teaching credential for secondary art education.
My career path took another turn when I became a partner in a Santa Barbara residential and commercial interior design firm. More than ten years later, I returned to UCSB to obtain a Masters in Education and a credential to teach in the area of special education. Pursuing another lifelong passion, during this time I spent five years teaching music appreciation classes through SBCC Adult Education.
In 1998 I was offered a position of teaching art at Santa Barbara Junior High, where I developed a rigorous, strategy-based multi-media art program. Teaching art to junior high students was a great confluence of my interests, and allowed me to help students explore their world through the lenses of many disciplines. Students in my 8th grade classes participated in the SAF Grandparent exhibition from it’s inception, and I have very fond memories of working with students on the project and eventually meeting many of the subjects of their drawings at the Grandparent exhibition.
After sixteen years of art teaching, I was elected to the position of President of the Santa Barbara Teachers Association, a position I held for three years, retiring in July 2016.
An unquenchable thirst for cultural experience led to a lifelong pursuit of travel, mostly to Europe and East Asia, but also North Africa and India. I have practiced photography since the age of 18, and photography remains my medium of choice, although I seem to have a finger in every aesthetic pie. Forty-plus years in Santa Barbara have only strengthened my passion for the arts and all things creative. I feel honored to participate in the Grandparent Show 2017 as a judge and thank the working board of the Student Art Fund for their tireless efforts to support art education in our community.
Libby Smith,
Juror for the 2019 Grandparent Portrait Show
Libby Smith was born in Kansas City, Missouri and raised in Los Angeles. She moved to Santa Barbara to attend U.C.S.B. where she received a BA and MFA with an emphasis in drawing.
Libby taught painting and drawing for 31 years at Santa Barbara City College and for 7 years S.B.C.C.’s School of Extended Learning. She retired from teaching in 2016 and now works primarily on figure painting and plein air landscape painting. Libby lives in Goleta with her husband.
Nina Warner,
Juror for the 2019 Grandparent Portrait Show
Nina Warner holds an MFA from UCSB and a BA from the College of Creative Studies at UCSB. She has lived and worked as an artist in Santa Barbara since 1973, and was Associate Professor in the Art Department at Santa Barbara City College from 1987 to 2012 teaching drawing, figure drawing, 2D design, oil painting, watercolor and artist books. She served as Art Department Chair and Director of the Atkinson Gallery, as well as co-director of Study Abroad programs to Florence, Italy and the former Soviet Union.
Over the years she has been involved in the arts community of Santa Barbara in many capacities including serving on Boards of local art institutions and groups, jurying exhibitions for various artist groups, participating in public panel talks and teaching painting workshops.
In 2012, Nina retired after 25 years of full-time teaching and hasdevoted much of her time to painting, drawing, and printmaking.
Her work has been exhibited widely – locally and throughout the U.S. In the past three years, she has shown work in the Atkinson Gallery, Faulkner Gallery, Elverhoj Museum, Wildling Museum of Art and Nature, Westmont/Ridley-Tree Museum, Channing-Peake Gallery, VITA Art Center, Casa Gallery, Palm Loft Gallery, Sullivan-Goss Gallery, the Architectural Foundation of Santa Barbara, Santa Paula Art Museum, Marcia Burtt Gallery, the SCAPE group at various venues, Santa Barbara City Hall Gallery, and represented at the Easton Gallery, Santa Barbara. She is a member of SCAPE and the California Art Club.
ninawarnerartwork.blogspot.com
Susan Savage,
Juror for the 2015 Grandparent Portrait Show
Susan Savage received her BA in Art and MFA in Painting from the University of California Santa Barbara. She has had a long and rich career in secondary and higher education in the Santa Barbara community. As Professor of Art at Westmont College she taught Drawing, Painting, Crafts, and art education courses, and served a ten-year term as chair of the art department.
Education has been the focus of her personal and professional life, where the nurturing and encouragement of individuals in their creative pursuits has been a stimulating, passionate, and rewarding adventure. Her ongoing works both in painting and collage have contributed significantly to her enduring vocation.
Susan Savage’s metaphorical paintings of objects as vehicles for devotional contemplation and dialogue have connected her personal and professional life on many levels. Her paintings have been exhibited in galleries and museums both locally and nationally, and her work has been the focus of several featured articles and publications over the years. For more information on Susan’s work visit susandsavage.com.
Susan remarked on her experience in judging the show: “It was a such delight to jury the 2015 Grandparent Show. It was also a very difficult task to select 11 honorable awards out of so many wonderful expressions. Because this particular task holds so much emotional anticipation for both the student artists and their families, I thought I would share some aspects of the conversation I was having with myself as I visited each piece several times before making my final selections.
First, it was very obvious to me that the images were distinctly full of passion, love, and care for the persons represented. From my own teaching experience I know that when students truly own what they do, it becomes personally meaningful to them, and they will thus invest their best in getting a pleasing result. This premise was evident in this exhibition, and I could see that passion somewhere in all of the works on display. Every time I made the rounds in the gallery I saw something I hadn’t seen before, or I appreciated something more fully in my initial attraction to the work. Composition, technique, and storytelling all factored into my decisions, as did the media chosen to convey the personal message. All in all I knew my selections would disappoint some expectant students and their family members, but I most sincerely hoped my selections would be viewed as something more than distinguished imitations of old photographs, but instead be seen as excellent evidence of the students’ own interpretations of the persons represented. In noting technical excellence that allowed each piece to be easily read from any distance, I hoped my selections would be accepted above disappointments to do more to encourage all of the young artists to keep striving for interpretive excellence, and to use this meaningful experience to take their abilities further. I hoped each student would remember the loving attention they gave to this worthy theme and continue to employ the same passion for all the other work they will produce, no matter what the theme.
As a public exhibition that showcases the fine teaching and individualized attention that is prevalent in our community’s art programs, I applaud this showcase exhibit, and congratulate each young artist for giving us all a little glimpse into a part of life that really matters.”