Connie Connally
Falling Meadow II
161602
SANTA BARBARA, CA - The River’s Journey: A Wider View at Sullivan Goss is the third installation of work by six artists calling themselves Rose Compass. Artists include Connie Connally, Holli Harmon, Libby Smith, Nicole Strasburg, Nina Warner, and Pamela Zwehl-Burke. River’s Journey: One Year, Six Artists, Ninety-two Miles showed at the Wildling Museum in Solvang earlier this year. A new exhibit was created and installed at the Santa Barbara City Hall Gallery in partnership with the Santa Barbara County Office of Arts and Culture and the City of Santa Barbara. Another interpretation of the exhibition will open at Westmont Museum of Art in January 2019. The installation at Sullivan Goss takes on a broader perspective by showing larger oil paintings by each artist as well as the small gouache paintings that originally inspired this group to paint together.
Rose Compass is using their art to inform the public about our local watershed, how it functions and our individual responsibility to protect its viability. Each of the 6 members of the Rose Compass group brings 20-30 years of experience creating and exhibiting both locally and nationally. The group formed out of a shared interest to explore the watershed that feeds Santa Barbara, uniting six unique points of view.
The River’s Journey Project visually brings to the forefront questions of stewardship, preservation and conservation. Through exhibitions, social media platforms and a publication they have created a new hub to link our existing agencies to a public audience. Art starts the conversation while providing education and information that can change behavior and expectations at a pivotal moment in our new paradigm of water resource management.
For centuries, the compass rose has served as a directional tool. ROSE COMPASS, a group of six women from Santa Barbara County (Connie Connally, Holli Harmon, Libby Smith, Nicole Strasburg, Nina Warner, and Pamela Zwehl-Burke) is charting a path to increase environmental awareness through art.
