Illumination Through Art

Illumination Through Art

Holli Harmon Shines a
Light on Santa Barbara’s
Cultural History for Fiesta

By Leslie Dinaberg | July 25, 2024

Iconic California imagery runs deep in the artistic bloodlines of painter Holli Harmon. Whether it’s winding through the environmental landscapes of “The River’s Journey” (exhibited at the California Nature Art Museum, Santa Barbara City Hall, Sullivan Goss Art Gallery, and the Westmont Ridley-Tree Museum of Art) or embedded into the human landscapes of the ambitious “Portraits of the Central Coast” (exhibited as Revelations at the Elverhøj Museum of History and Art), Harmon’s thoughtfully immersive approach to what has been described as her “contemporary traditional” artistic style brings a beautiful blend of the head and the heart to the canvas. 

Old Spanish Days’ El Presidente Brian Schwabecher’s vision for the Fiesta poster theme — “Four Nations, One Spirit” — seems almost tailor-made for Harmon’s CV, which, while far-reaching, tends to consistently revolve around human experiences that are connection points between different cultures and generations set in iconic California imagery.

But even in relatively small Santa Barbara, it was a bit of a treasure hunt for Schwabecher to hunt down this ideally suited artist to commemorate Fiesta’s “Viva el Centenario” celebration.

A banker by trade, Schwabecher shared that after a three-year lead-in to his role as El Presidente, “there was probably a good deal of performance anxiety on my part; with the 100th anniversary, there’s probably some heightened expectation for what the poster will be.”

He wanted it to celebrate the past, the future, and the now, and he set about finding an artist to commission. During his lunch breaks, “I would wander to some of the art studios downtown, and I would Google images; I would go to the Eastside to look at local artists. I spent lots of time for months looking for just an image where I thought I could at least have a conversation with an artist — I almost gave up.”

Then 2008 El Presidente Tim Taylor, who had an art contest for potential poster imagery for his term, texted him an image of a painting he had purchased from that group. Schwabecher was immediately compelled by the image of a dancer. 

“It kind of illuminated with this gold kind of outline, almost like she’s larger than life…. I just thought there was a lot of emotion in the way that that was put together. And I thought it included, very subtly, a lot of historical elements,” said Schwabecher.

He went to see the painting, which sits on Taylor’s mantle, in person, excited that he may have found his poster artist. It looked even better there. But Taylor couldn’t remember the artist’s name, and the signature just said “HH.”

The sleuth work continued, until Schwabecher finally found Harmon after extensive Google searches for Santa Barbara artists. He found her website and sent her an email.

Harmon was interested, and “when he told me what the theme was going to be, which was ‘Four Nations, One Spirit,’ that’s when I really got a little more excited about it,” she said. Her artist-in-residency with the White Buffalo Land Trust was ending soon, and she had recently had the solo exhibition To Feast on Clouds at Sullivan Goss Gallery. 

The theme spoke to her. “I’m very interested in what makes us Californians: whatever common experiences we have and what brings us together. Why did people come all this way to California, and how those earliest threads show up today in who we are, and where they’re going to lead us into the future,” said Harmon. “As an artist, it was kind of like it fit what I was interested in.” 

One look around her studio — a charming sunlit sanctuary surrounded by a lush garden communal space and situated in what is rapidly becoming a family compound with Harmon and her husband, Terry, in one space; her mom and stepdad in another; and her sister about to move into a third cottage — and you can see how broad and varied those interests are. Art books, historical tomes, reference materials, ephemera, and travel treasures are neatly arranged among art supplies and complexly layered, intricately colored paintings in various stages and sizes that range from small quatrefoil shapes to enormous canvases.

Many of these works in progress are destined for her special Old Spanish Days exhibition at Sullivan Goss, titled Four Nations, One Spirit: 100 Years of Fiesta and on view July 26 through August 26. 

The commemorative painting “Four Nations, One Spirit” will of course be the centerpiece of the show, a beautiful work on its own that becomes even more compelling as Harmon explains the thoughtfulness and hard work that went into capturing the rich tapestry of influences that have shaped Santa Barbara’s history: the Chumash, Mexican, Spanish, and American cultures.

She developed some early sketches and consulted with Schwabecher, but as far as input goes, Harmon said, “he was so great. He’s like, ‘I’m not an artist. I totally trust you.’ ” This gave her plenty of freedom to explore the topic.

“Who I was painting this for definitely influenced this style. And what was included, because I wanted everybody to be happy,” said Harmon. Aware of the historical significance of Fiesta’s centennial, she said, “The whole town’s watching. I want to give them something that most people can be excited about, embrace, and understand. You know, some of my other work is a little more contemporary than this. I didn’t want people to be like, ‘What am I looking at?’ I did want it to be something that everybody could understand, from a 6-year-old up to a 90-year-old.”

Harmon has painted many flamenco dancers over the years, keeping them visible in the studio for reference and inspiration, so having last year’s Spirit of Fiesta, Jack Harwood, dance and pose for her was a natural outgrowth of those earlier experiences. 

She did a deep dive into all of the previous Fiesta posters, as well as the history of what was going on in Santa Barbara back in 1924. “That’s why it’s painted in this style, the coloring — all of that is very much of the style of the illustrators of that era,” said Harmon.

In addition to Harwood, the characters depicted on the poster art include Kathleen Marshall, a Samala woman
(historically known as the Ineseño Chumash) whom Harmon got to know through her “Portraits of the Central Coast” project.

Of that experience, Harmon said, “I feel so lucky to be invited into so many interesting places and learn something and have that. All of those people from the portraits project have shaped me and driven a lot of where I go now in my work.”

The mariachi trumpet player is a classic mariachi image used a lot in both Mexico and the U.S. For the contemporary image, “the cowboy boho chic is based on an advertisement for something, but I changed the figure somewhat, to fit the clothes a little bit,” said Harmon. “But you know how boho is in and everybody wears their hats and their boots? I thought, how timely is it that we’re still playing dress-up today.”

Further reflecting, as she is wont to do, Harmon said, “I’m always looking at all of those variables in our culture of: what is it telling me? And the good fortune of aging is, I get to see things recycled … so that figure is just to mark where we are today. But also to remember that our cowboy culture, which is totally fascinating to me, that’s so much a part of our county.”

It’s also an acknowledgement of America’s biggest icon, she adds. “If somebody says ‘America,’ what comes to mind? You know, they’re gonna say ‘cowboy.’ ”

The fire conjures up imagery of old mythology, gods and goddesses, and being a symbol of light, but it’s also a nod to that first Fiesta in 1924, she said. “At that time, we all would have been gathering around fire. Every culture, the Chumash has their celebrations — I’m sure it was around fires. When the conquistadors came and the Spanish were here, it was around fires, firelight, candlelight. Every single one of those cultures would have used firelight.”

The flowers also represent each nation. The carnation for Spain, dahlia for Mexico, red rose for America, and the Matilija poppy for the Chumash. “I tried to embed as many symbols as I could. But without it becoming too complicated,” said Harmon.

“I ended with the Chumash being the larger flower; it worked on so many different levels. The full moon in the painting is because Fiesta used to be organized around the full moon. I put in the mission because it’s our biggest symbol of Santa Barbara. I wanted to anchor it in Santa Barbara…. And then, in the sky, the North Star, the Big Dipper, also relates to Ernestine DeSoto and in her portrait that I had done at the Natural History Museum; it has that exact constellation. … The rocket launch from Vandenberg is our present and our future. So I wanted to keep on trying to put in some very contemporary things. The century plant, Agave americana, is one I thought was appropriate as well.”

She continued, “My hope is it’s beautiful enough that people just say, ‘Wow, that’s really beautiful.’ And I love Fiesta, and all of it, whatever it means for them. … Everything doesn’t need to be spelled out. I want everybody to bring things to it, which has been really fun hearing about what they see and what they feel. And that’s the most important thing.”

In recognition of Harmon’s work on the poster art, Schwabecher named her as an Honorary Director of Old Spanish Days, stating, “I nominated you for the caring dedication and taking on a pretty big project, noting that sensitivities to each element were vital.”

And like many of Harmon’s artistic journeys, this is just the beginning of her dive into Santa Barbara’s Fiesta. Harmon is now ready and eager to dig into the festivities themselves. “I hope I can get really close to study and photograph the horses and examine the saddles and the bridles and the movement and the patterns of all of the dancers’ costumes. I really want to immerse myself in all of it this year,” she said. “I’m going to try to go to everything that I can this year. And I’m just doing a deep dive — I’m doing ALL of Fiesta!”

See Four Nations, One Spirit: 100 Years of Fiesta at Sullivan Goss Gallery (11 E. Anapamu St.), July 26–August 26. See sullivangoss.com/exhibitions/holli-harmon3.