Our New Intern

Welcome Ann Tardiff

Ann Tardiff

Carsey Wolf Internship, UCSB

The Carsey-Wolf Internship Program is a competitive internship opportunity through UCSB.  We are excited to be working with Ann Tardiff this Spring and Summer season.

What Ann has to say...

I am a junior at the University of California, Santa Barbara. I am double majoring in English and Film & Media Studies. My studies focus on narratives and their relationship to storytelling. I decided to apply for the Carsey-Wolf internship to find an artistic outlet that has an underlying structure to it.

I was accepted into the Carsey-Wolf internship, which begins with interviews and eventually creates a well thought out pairing of a student to a project that focuses on their strengths while also contributing to their professional aspirations.

While working for Portraits of the Central Coast, I will produce thirty-minute episodes that share the narratives of unique individuals who contribute to our community in a plethora of different ways. 

Who Is Next?

After a tremendous inaugural exhibition at the Elverhoj Museum of History and Art in Solvang, we have quietly been planning our next portrait subjects.  We always are looking for new clues for cultural appreciation and we found several  suggestions made by our friends who follow the project.

Obviously, ART carries culture.  

But where to begin? and in what medium?  One person's name came through several sources....Sojourner Kincaid Rolle, our Poet Laureate in Santa Barbara.  She is a phenomenal wordsmith who captures our surroundings and community through her poetry.

Sojourner Kincaid Rolle

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Not as obvious, but completely relevant and at the top of our newsfeed

....WATER.

 How do we manage water, and what is unique about water in the Central Coast?  What is the future of this imperative resource? What is different today and what has stayed the same? Well, a good person to ask is Kelley Dyer, Santa Barbara's Water Supply Manager.  Yes, there are a LOT of people involved in managing water.  And, we have a lot of history with water, or the lack of water.  Just ask our Chumash friends.

Kelley Dyer, Santa Barbara Water Supply Manager

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And speaking of our Native Americans, I was recently contacted by Steve Schwartz, Navy Archeologist to see if we could create a more accurate portrait of the

Lone Woman from San Nicolas Island

(better known as the character in O'dells Island of the Blue Dolphins, a required read in many California elementary schools). New evidence has been found, giving us first hand descriptions of what she actually looked like.  This photograph associated with her, ( which I obviously altered for fun!), most likely dates 20 years after her death.  As always, I am intrigued with documenting our earliest culture in the region.

Jauna Maria, Lone Woman San Nicolas Island

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We will keep you up to date as our stories unfold.  

Katherine Kwong's Reflection on the Project

Katherine Kwong was a brilliant intern on our project this last year.  She is a senior at Westmont College and has contributed Lesson Plans for K-12, using our Portraits of the Central Coast content.

 Read her thoughts below:

We cannot live only for ourselves.  

A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men;

and among those fibers, as sympathetic threads, 

our actions run as causes, and they come back to us as effects.

- Herman Melville

This is the epigraph that greeted me when I turned the glossy pages of Holli Harmon’s first exhibition catalog. It was her art project’s first debut as a solo show and it was my job to read through the catalog by way of introduction to the project. It was the first thread I would follow into this multi-faceted project. The more I read about the project, the more I realized how unique it was. That word is frighteningly cliché, but Holli was mixing history and art, sociology and videography, story and sound bite in a way I had not experienced before.  The people she had chosen to paint were ordinary, the kind of people I might see at a farmer’s market or local theater or cycling down a main bike path. Yet, there was something in all of them: they were all curious. They were curious about their place in the world, their place in and among their chose craft and their place as world-changers. Not world-changers in the glossy, globalized commercial way, but world-changers who saw the real problems and acted on finding positive solutions. All of the portrait subjects are invested in curiosity in different ways. I was hooked.

Holli Harmon’s studio is a webbed landscape in itself. It has been both artist workshop and gallery space and somewhere in between. On a bulletin board tacked up paper memories from magazines and artist meet ups is child-like picture of a square man, stick arms spread wide:

“I have no idea what is going to happen and I love it!”

an enthusiastic declarations that became my mantra. Sure, there are naysayers who will say it’s is impractical, but what it taught me about the realm of the possible makes its inherent uncertainty a possibility. Internships can give you hard practical skills sure. But, internships also teach you how to deal with other slices of life you haven’t had yet: uncertainty, unstructured environments, artists and independent work. Those are forming habits that will last me a lifetime. I am by no means an expert in any of those states of being. But, I’ve done them enough to know which ones I like, which ones need growth and which ones I love. Unorthodox takeaways for a different kind of project.

Portraits of the Central Coast has shown me the delight of a community collage.

Art captures reality well and we would do well to pay attention to art more.

I have always loved art thanks to two wonderful parents, but art’s ability to partner with other mediums showed me that the possibilities for storytelling via art are really endless. So many threads, a lovely yarn of a project and story to be a part of. It doesn’t end here. Check our Portraits for yourself and share them with a person in your life. You’re bound to find connections from common interest to needing teacher resources – that’s how we get to know each other right? The effects of the project have been good. I am grateful and inspired to have helped make them better.

-Katherine Kwong

Montecito Magazine Feature Story

AND THE MEME GOES ON...

ART REVIEW: Portrait of People, Place and Spirit by Josef Woodard

CASA SB/ VoiceSB

Art Salon with Holli Harmon

Salon (gathering)

A salon is a gathering of people under the roof of an inspiring host, held partly to amuse one another and partly to refine the taste and increase the knowledge of the participants through conversation. 

Please join me  on Wednesday July 20th, 5-7pm. Our inspiring hosts are the Elverhoj Museum and Santa Ynez Valley Arts.

  I hope to amuse and share the process and inspirations behind this intriguing multi-media body of work.  It's all about YOU  and the cultures that live in the Central Coast of California.

Santa Ynez Valley Arts

Stories at Sunset/ REVELATIONS Culture Club #2

The Culture Club series is inspired by Elverhoj’s new art exhibition, “Revelations: Culture and the Human Landscape of the Central Coast.” The display is a multifaceted approach to portraiture that begins with an individual subject being a portal to not only their appearance, but to their history and hopes for the future. These life stories illuminate the cultures that give our region color, purpose, and meaning. Viewers can wander the Museum Gallery and experience stories, paintings, and videos that share the cultures of the Central Coast community.

Culture Club continues on June 3 with Stories at Sunset, celebrating native language and oral traditions; July 20th at an Art Salon with artist Holli Harmon speaking about her Passion for Culture; and concludes on August 13 with Home Plate: How the Danes Do It, an invitation to delight in Danish food and merriment as the Revelations exhibit closes.

Santa Maria Sun Cover Story!

Portrait of a community: Holli Harmon's exhibit at the Elverhoj Museum in Solvang captures the human landscape of the Central Coast 

BY JOE PAYNE

Home Grown:Fruits of Our Labor/ REVELATIONS CULTURE CLUB #1

Culture Club launches on May 21, 4:30 to 6:30 pm, with

Home Grown: The Fruits of Our Labor

Culture Club launches on May 21, 4:30 to 6:30 pm, with Home Grown: The Fruits of Our Labor, an invitation to experience the area’s celebrated agrarian culture. Food and wine pairings will delight the senses. Stimulating conversation will include dialogue with organic wine industry pioneers Richard and Thekla Sanford, organic cattle rancher Elizabeth Poett, and farm labor manager Luis Ramirez. Their personal experiences tell about the magnificence of the scale of the area’s agricultural industry.

The Culture Club series is inspired by Elverhoj’s new art exhibition, “Revelations: Culture and the Human Landscape of the Central Coast.” The display is a multifaceted approach to portraiture that begins with an individual subject being a portal to not only their appearance, but to their history and hopes for the future. These life stories illuminate the cultures that give our region color, purpose, and meaning. Viewers can wander the Museum Gallery and experience stories, paintings, and videos that share the cultures of the Central Coast community.

Culture Club continues on June 3 with Stories at Sunset, celebrating native language and oral traditions; July 20th at an Art Salon with artist Holli Harmon speaking about her Passion for Culture; and concludes on August 13 with Home Plate: How the Danes Do It, an invitation to delight in Danish food and merriment as the Revelations exhibit closes.

Sneak Peek! REVELATIONS Grand Opening next Saturday April 23, 4-6 pm.

Multi Media Portrait Exhibition exploring the culture and human landscape of the Central Coast. On exhibition at the Elverhoj Museum of History and Art, Solvang, CA from April 23-August 13, 2016. Grand Opening April 23 4-6.

REVELATIONS: Opening Reception Saturday April 23 4-6pm

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Meet the Portrait Subjects and experience all our region has to offer at the fun Culture Club evenings scheduled throughout the exhibition.

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Big News! Exhibition at the Elverhoj Museum

Save the Date:

Saturday, April 23,2016

Revelations:Culture and the Human Landscape

Elverhoj Museum of History and Art, Solvang, CA

Our first exhibition, titled, Revelations is scheduled to open at the Elverhoj Museum of History and Art on Saturday April 23, 2016.  This multimedia exhibition includes portrait paintings, video, audio tour, and a series of monoprints that have layers of imagery, like an archeological dig.  All of these works of art introduce us to the cultures that reside in the Central Coast of California.  Be sure to document your visit with a “selfie portrait” and meet a number of the portrait subjects in person at one of our three “artist talk events.”

3 IMPRESSIVE UCSB INTERNS are working to build this exhibition.

Feasting on Rancho San Julian

Elizabeth Poett shares homemade empanadas.

By Katherine Bradford

Rancho San Julian's Farm to Table Lunch was a featured part of the Bacara Resort's recent Food and Wine Weekend to celebrate locally and sustainably grown foods. Both food and drink are vehicles that carry our region's cultural influences. The ranch lands, located between Highway 101 and Point Conception, include some of the most scenic rolling hills and oak groves to be found anywhere in the state.

Jim Poett shares about the history of the ranch and the original adobe home.

Guests were warmly welcomed to the ranch by the Poett family with glasses of sangria and freshly baked empanadas. A circle of benches was set up under the oak trees, where Jim Poett talked about the history of the Rancho San Julian lands and his family's involvement since the early 1800s. His conversation with us ranged from sharing about the challenges of managing this 13,000-acre ranch under the current drought conditions to maintaining genetic diversity in the Angus cattle herd. Today the ranch is increasingly known for its production of grass-fed beef, raised under the expert eyes of Jim, his daughter, Elizabeth, and her husband Austin Campbell. In drought years, there is both less water to be found on the ranch and less feedin the form of European grasses such as oats and rye, and native grasses. Consequently, the herd size must be reduced and now stands at 300. Ranch products include not only beef, which is sold to local restaurants and at farmer's markets, but also hay, honey, lavender oil, and produce for the families that live on the ranch.

The ranch gardens and orchards are managed by Chris Thompson, who gave guests an educational tour on biodynamic farming methods and experimentation with dry farming. The active garden covers about two acres and growing areas are rotated after being used for a couple of years. After a wide variety of desired crops are harvested, the fields are not just left fallow but often planted with species that will help to enrich the nutrients in the soil. After touring the gardens, guests were invited to lunch under the trellis.

Picnic tables were beautifully set with Mexican tablecloths, vases of roses, bottles of Alma Rosa wines and pitchers of Sangria. The meal was created from the bounty of the garden and included a savory carrot soup, a salad of beets and mixed greens, a hearty chili, and featured the ranch's famous tri-tip. Elizabeth talked about the history of our region's tri-tip barbecue, which originated on the ranch. The tri-tip cut is from the tip of the sirloin; a side of beef yields only one to two pounds, which makes it a special cut. And finally, Chandler strawberries from the garden were the key ingredient in a delectable shortcake dessert. Everyone asked about when the next lunch would be held.

Jim Poett shares that his family is proud to be stewards of this ranch. The beauty of the land is enhanced by the fact that it is a working ranch. Rancho San Julian is a prime example of sustainable ranching and farming practices that are continually adjusted for the changing conditions of the land and availability of water.

If you’d like to learn more about the history of the ranch, visit Holli’s portrait of Elizabeth Poett. If you’d like to learn more about the ranch products, visit Rancho San Julian Beef.

What's New In the NEW YEAR 2015?

2015 IS SHAPING UP TO BE A GREAT YEAR!

Introducing our 

NEW WEBSITE

www.portraitsofthecentralcoast.com

What else is new?