ABOUT LOUISE, THE ARTIST
Louise Gerber began taking ‘Contemporary Art’ classes the same year her handicapped daughter was born.
Six year later she won first prize at a competition at the Faulkner Library Art Gallery. It was her first piece using texture instead of paint. Fortunately, the winning painting was hanging in the gallery when one of Santa Barbara’s fires devasted 200 homes overnight. Unfortunately, she lost more than fifty paintings and everything else she owned.
Two years later she won a competition at the university. The prize was a one-person show. Since she lost all her art in the fire, she spent the next five months getting ready for her one-person show.
In 1984 she started a business, she called Closets, Etc. Remodeling closets was a new idea at the time, and she thought it would only be a part-time business, and she would still be able to create art. But the business grew and consumed her time.
Now retired she is back creating art.
She calls herself a mixed media artist, as most of her work includes more than paint on canvas. Some are three dimensional, some are textural, some are multiple canvasses or wood. Some she calls her shadow pieces.
Shadow Art Work
Multiple Canvasses / Wood Artwork
Textural Artwork
Miscellaneous Artwork
ABOUT LOUISE, THE WRITER
Louise Gerber has been a schoolteacher, business owner, artist, writer, and special needs activist.
Louise started writing about her “severely handicapped” daughter after reading a book by a father who wrote about his autistic son. Provoked by the author's negativity Louise started writing about the joy she received and the lessons she herself learned, even though Naomi challenged everything Louise thought motherhood would be.
But with time Naomi’s behaviors and medical problems became too much.
WHEN LOVE IS NOT ENOUGH is her story of the fourteen years Naomi lived at home. It’s a story of her dedication, learning, and acceptance. In the end Louise finally had to accept she didn’t have the endless patience to give Naomi the 100% care she needed and would always require. But even after this realization, she questioned herself. Did she try hard enough to care for Naomi at home, or did she try too hard.
As she wrote her story of their relationship, Louise found that poetry was sometimes a better way to tell her story. She published her book of poetry NAOMI, MY BABY FOREVER in 2011.
Louise’s last words: Although Naomi could not live in my world, she allowed me, and others, to enter hers. Her world was filled with pictures she looked at and often tore from her many books; Sesame Street, the only television show that kept her attention; and the music she requested and listened to, and music she created from snippets of songs and rhymes.
Most importantly her world was filled with people who took care of her with love.
Louise Gerber, the Artist with her artwork can be found here.
CONTACT LOUISE GERBER
I would love to hear from you!
LouiseSbg@gmail.com
