Experience Creativity Up Close This Labor Day Weekend

This Labor Day Weekend, Santa Barbara will transform into a living gallery, as artists open their doors to the public for the 23rd annual Santa Barbara Studio Artists (SBSA) Open Studio Tour. From August 30 to September 2, art aficionados will have the unique opportunity to engage directly with Santa Barbara’s star artists and view up close the exceptional works that define the Santa Barbara art scene.

Ticket sales from this year’s SBSA Open Studio Tour will benefit the Grace Fisher Foundation, which is committed to making the arts more accessible to people of all abilities. At the age of 17, Fisher was diagnosed with a rare condition that left her paralyzed from the neck down. During rehab, she became involved with music and art therapy. This was an incredibly formative experience for Fisher, one that renewed her passion for the arts and fomented a desire to make artistic spaces better available to those with disabilities.

The SBSA Open Studio Tour kicks off with a reception on Friday, August 30, at the Community Arts Workshop. This reception will offer attendees an exclusive preview of pieces by various homegrown artists, including an original oil painting by Fisher herself (she paints her colorful creations holding the brush with her teeth). Dozens of other Santa Barbara–based artists will be in attendance, showcasing their own creations and giving guests some good guidance of which studios they will want to visit the next day. 

Among those artists present will be the accomplished husband-and-wife duo Stan and Tricia Evenson. Stan and Tricia worked as designers in Los Angeles for years before abruptly moving to Oregon in 2014 to pursue fine art, eventually settling in Santa Barbara in the summer of 2020. Explaining their background as artists, Tricia noted that their paths have crossed in many interesting ways.

Both attended the ArtCenter College of Design. Immediately after graduating, Stan was hired by a former professor to join the creative services department at A&M Records. He left a few years later to open his own design business, Evenson Design Group (EDG), and over the years has designed more than 100 album covers for musicians such as Tom Petty, Carly Simons, George Harrison, Tina Turner, and many more.

Tricia joined EDG in the late ’80s, where she met Stan. Together, they navigated the hectic world of commercial design until making the joint decision to reinvent their careers, and themselves, in Oregon.

“We were just burnt out, tired of the industry,” Tricia said, “We wanted to move to an area where we didn’t know anybody and reinvent ourselves as fine artists. We’ve been artists at heart forever, but it was always focused in the commercial world.”

Stan and Tricia have long embraced rather distinct artistic styles, a schism that has become more pronounced since they have begun to immerse themselves in personal art projects. Stan describes his art as pop surrealism and very detail-oriented. He likes to combine things that don’t go together, often incorporating lots of humor and vintage references. Heavily influenced by the famous Ralph Goings, who had actually been an instructor at Stan’s high school prior to being discovered, Stan imbues his paintings with bright colors and an intensely lifelike quality.

On the other hand, Tricia’s art oscillates between abstract expressionism and hyper-realistic wildlife paintings. She vividly recalled shaking off the yoke of corporate pressures and leaning into this newfound freedom to express herself without restraint, saying, “I found this incredible release and joy. Painting became sort of my therapy, helping me release myself from the constraints of being a designer where everything is deadline-driven and geared toward selling something.”

With room to experiment, Tricia was able to uncover new interests and talents within herself. She remembered working with a teacher in Oregon to paint a large-scale raven.

“I realized a skill that I didn’t even know I had, which was to paint realistically in great detail. That set me off on a journey to paint other wildlife images and, for a little while, I was painting animals that were on the extinct list,” Tricia explained. “Even though I can get lost in painting the detail, and I do it quite well, I also really enjoy being loose and spontaneous and not thinking at all. I go back and forth. It’s almost like I’m two different painters.”

“What I do is very different, probably 180 degrees opposite of what Tricia is doing,” Stan interjected, with a chuckle, “I have a lot of fun with wacky, crazy images that require a lot of attention and detail. Tricia will sometimes crank out 20 paintings to my one.”

Tricia nodded, “Some things are very similar but, generally speaking, I tend to be a little bit more emotional about my work. I’m putting in what I’m feeling. And Stan is referencing images and iconography. He is more consciously thinking, even though what he’s putting together is irrational.”

Stan and Tricia will both be exhibiting art at the opening. Hoping to shock audiences, Stan was hesitant to share too many details about his piece. He kept it intriguingly vague, saying, “I think it’ll have people surprised because I’m sure that it will be very different from the other art at the show. It’s satirical and [references] conspiracy theory and has a vintage feel, so you might get thrown back to the ’50s.”

Tricia revealed that her piece will be a large-scale acrylic painting of a two-inch goldfish.

“There’s something so simple yet beautiful about it. It’s kind of a juicy painting. The color just calls you in. I think the absurdity of having something so small and insignificant be blown up to that scale is fun. And you can really appreciate the ethereal nature of the fins and scales,” she described.

The other featured artists for 2024 include: Misa Art, who paints on metal, wood, and other materials; Kevin Gleason, who creates plein air landscape paintings in oil, acrylic, and casein; Laurie MacMillan, an abstract oil painter inspired by nature; Joan Rosenberg-Dent, an abstract sculptor working principally in unglazed porcelain; Francis Scorzelli, a contemporary abstract artist who works in oil and mixed media on canvas and paper; and Dorene White, a landscape artist whose plein air and studio oil paintings are inspired by the beauty of California. Additional participating artists include a variety of painters, sculptors, and mixed-media assemblage artists. 

Tickets can be purchased at bit.ly/4cGSuT3. For more information and a complete list of participating artists, see santabarbarastudioartists.com.