"Hope, A New Day"

Along with over 400 Santa Barbara area artists Karen responded to the "Call for Artists" for the program. Several months after she submitted images of her work she received a request to do a second submittal for a commission to provide art for the 8' x 23' art niches located 20' above the floor of the Main Lobby of the hospital. The only guidelines were to provide "Iconic images of Santa Barbara" that would be in keeping with the concept of Healing Arts. Looking for appropriate viewpoints, Karen and Bill combed the whole Santa Barbara area from Camino Cielo to the Harbor and the beaches. and finally found two views that inspired these murals. One of them, a view across Santa Barbara's West side over State Street and the Riviera to the Santa Ynez Mountains glowing in warm winter evening light became "Peace, A Quiet Evening". The subject for the other Triptych was found at the outlet of Mission Creek at near Stearn's Wharf. They chose a bright, fresh (and chilly) early morning after a January storm for "Hope, A New Day". Karen painted two 5 foot long "maquette" paintings while Bill did CAD drawings showing the construction and scale of the Triptychs to complete the submittal. Weeks later they were very pleased to find out I had been awarded the commission. Then reality set in and they began 10 months of work to complete what was by far the biggest art project Karen had ever considered. The year's effort completed with the installation of the paintings on December 9, 2011 In 2012 we worked on Limited Edition Archival Canvas Prints of these Triptychs in sizes from 20" x 60" to 40" x 120".

"Peace, End of Day"