Hospice of Santa Barbara CEO David Selberg with Artist Margaret Singer at the opening of her solo art exhibit.
Hospice of Santa Barbara and the community welcomed local artist Margaret Singer to the Leigh Block Gallery located within Hospice of Santa Barbara Wednesday, Aug. 12, marking the opening of her solo art exhibit, “Celebrations.”
Community members filled the gallery to meet Margaret and take a look at her thought-provoking, mixed-medium paintings.
“Celebrations” will be on display at the Leigh Block Gallery — located at 2050 Alameda Padre Serra, Suite #100, Santa Barbara — until Oct. 31, 2015.
Singer, 94, began painting as a child and began taking art classes following her arrival in America after leaving Nazi Germany. Singer turned to painting, using it as a journal to chronicle stages in her life, including the hostile times in Germany.
"With the coming of the Nazis, a sense of malaise pervaded our lives. Children threw stones at us, calling us names. Jewish people began to disappear," says Margaret Singer about her childhood in Frankfurt, Germany. Margaret, her sister Paula and her brothers Sidney and Henry fled to America, and so began her decades long career in painting.
"All the years that I've been painting, I paint the same subjects...the people walking, marching and faces that haunt me," said Singer.
While some of her artwork reflecting her thoughts, other projects have turned to celebrating the beauty of nature and the universe around her.
Singer chose to name the exhibit “Celebrations,” as she is grateful to have made it past her 94th birthday and believes life and the universe are good.
Singer’s artwork has been featured at the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, under former Museum Director Donald Bear, as well as Gallery 113, the Jewish Federation of Greater Santa Barbara, Abstract Art Collection, the Santa Barbara Art Association and numerous shows.
She has taught figure and landscape painting through Santa Barbara City College’s adult education program for 20 years.
Singer will donate 25 percent of the proceeds from her art sales to Hospice of Santa Barbara, Inc., a volunteer hospice organization.
Hospice of Santa Barbara “volunteers” its free professional counseling and care management services those who are experiencing the impact of a life-threatening illness or grieving the death of a loved one.
Hospice of Santa Barbara is also present on six local high school campuses to work with children and teens who are grieving the loss of a loved one. For more information about Hospice of Santa Barbara, including volunteer opportunities, call 805.563.8820 or visit www.hospiceofsantabarbara.org.
— Angel Pacheco is a publicist representing Hospice of Santa Barbara.