'A Fanciful World' Exhibit Coming To Laguna Art Museum

LAGUNA BEACH, CA—An exhibition devoted to the life's work of Jessie Arms Botke will open during Laguna Art Museum's Art & Nature Festival. It's a perfect fit. As "A Fanciful World: Jessie Arms Botke" delights in the artist's bold depictions of exotic birds and tropical flowers.

The festival's keynote speaker will also focus on birds. Historian Daniel Lewis will trace the flight of birds in art with his talk at 7 p.m. on November 5: "John James Audubon: Art, Nature and Science in the Nineteenth Century."

The talk sets the stage for "A Fanciful World," as Arms Botke was born in Chicago in 1883, and studied at the Art Institute of Chicago beginning in the penultimate year of the 19th century.

The retrospective examines the entire oeuvre of this prolific artist, including her California paintings of the 1930s and 1940s, which are renowned for the innovative use of gold and silver leaf.

In a google search of Botke's works, the term "Art Deco Audubon" pops up to describe her images. We'll have to see if its an apt one.

Botke's works are bold and imaginative, inspired by Japanese design and influenced by tapestries.

In one, cockatoos observe pink flamingos nibbling on orchids in the foreground. Deep in the dark hues of the background, is a wall composed of repetitive, vertical bamboo. Energy and dynamism are barely contained within the frame.

Arms Botke worked on murals throughout her life. She declared herself an artist after a trip to Europe in 1909. Then two years later, she was working as a muralist in New York City, then in San Francisco.

A centerpiece of the Laguna Art Museum exhibition is a 29-foot-long mural created in 1954 that once adorned the Oaks Hotel in Ojai, California.

Murals she created in collaboration with her husband can be seen today at the Oxnard Public Library and in the auditorium of Santa Paula High School.

The couple had moved to California with their young son in 1919. First to Carmel-By-the-Sea, then in 1927 to a ranch outside Santa Paula, where she passed in 1971.

While Jessie Arms Botke exhibited widely her entire career, Laguna Art Museum claims "few exhibitions have focused solely on Botke’s work."

"A Fanciful World: Jessie Arms Botke" will be on display from November 4th to January 16, 2022.

For more on the ninth annual Art & Nature Festival, click here.