Nature itself may have served as humanity’s first artistic muse, having existed as art’s most fertile wellspring of inspiration. Art has changed though, along with the landscape, as the Wildling Museum’s current main gallery exhibition highlights.
The show, Legacy and Loss: Landscapes of the Santa Barbara Region, commands the large, fantastically lit space of the Wildling’s main gallery. The exhibit includes historic and contemporary artists’ work that depicts Ventura, Santa Barbara, and SLO counties, and highlights the changes that have overtaken the various regions.
The show includes many local artists, including celebrated locals who have since passed on, like Channing Peake and Henry Chapman Ford. Roping in three counties in the subject matter and centuries of artists meets the exhibit’s goal of both connecting the viewer to the region’s natural wonder as well as educating about the history of change, explained museum Executive Director Stacy Otte-Demangate.
“It’s really a perfect expression of our mission, because it really shows the relevance of the changing landscape and why you should care about that, which is what we’re all about” she said. “We connect people to nature through art, and this helps us be very locally relevant, telling the story of the whole region.”
Legacy and Loss includes a few placards off to the side that detail the fundamental agents of change in the area, from ranching and agriculture to the oil industry. There’s even a small collection of Chumash artifacts, consisting of a few artfully decorated pieces that reveal the skill of the area’s earliest artists.
Education is a huge motivating factor for the Wildling’s mission, but you hardly feel at school when wandering the vaulted halls of incredible art. Also downstairs, the gift shop area shares a featured artist as well as plenty of educational and artsy items for sale.
Up a short staircase from the museum’s main area is its second level, where the exhibit Prints from Land and Sea: A Blend of Art and Science shows. The exhibit features direct prints of wildlife made by biologists/artists Eric Hochberg, and Shane Anderson and Genny Anderson, who used specimens to create incredibly photo-realistic prints on canvas and fabric, explained the museum’s assistant director Jessica McLoughlin.
“The ones on fabric are all done in the indirect method, which means they had this squid on a table, they put the fabric over it, and then, using these tools, they dabbed the paint onto the fabric so the texture came up through,” she said. “All of these specimens were washed up on the beach, or already dead, or collected by fisherman and donated to the artists. The artists are all scientists as well, who work at Santa Barbara City College or UCSB.”
Hochberg, whose work is included in the exhibit, is credited with bringing the technique back from Japan, McLoughlin explained. He also co-founded the Nature Printing Society in 1976.
There are prints of cephalopods, crustaceans, fish, and even a baby great white shark. The exhibit reflects the museum’s dedication to all kinds of wildlife, not just land preservation, but fauna as well.
The third floor at the Wildling includes a very small gallery that just finished showing Ray Strong: The Man and His Legacy. There’s also a place to sit and read, and games for kids to play. Also on the third floor is the Barbara Goodall Education Center, a regular meeting space for community and educational groups. The education center always houses a community art exhibit, McLoughlin said, and currently showing is the art of local high school students.
“They all did this artwork outside of class time to participate,” she said. “It’s kind of fun to see their own personal styles.”
It can be easy to get lost for an hour or more among the exhibits at the Wildling Museum, but it’s never time wasted. Those who visit leave with an edifying art experience—an educational one at that—which stays in the mind, like the sight of a beautiful sunset or day at the beach.
Arts Editor Joe Payne thinks nature has style. Contact him at jpayne@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Dec 17-24, 2015.
