Indiana transplant to Santa Barbara, Marcia Rickard is an artist based in the Southern California area. Currently enjoying retirement, Marcia works with many mediums exploring different expressions of art.

“I am a hybrid--student/professor/artist/art historian.  I entered my undergraduate years at Indiana University intending to major in studio art.  Then I discovered art history and pursued that path to a PhD in medieval art at Brown University.  I became a professor of art history for 34 years at Saint Mary's College, Notre Dame, Indiana.  During that time, I expanded my repertoire of courses to include nineteenth century western art, Asian art, feminist art, and museum studies as well as travel courses to Europe and Asia.  I served as Associate Dean of Faculty and Director of the Center for Academic Innovation, as well as a consultant to the Art Institute of Chicago Education Department and a board member of the National Association of Schools of Art and Design.   After retirement I moved to Santa Barbara, California, and returned to the original plan—being an artist—but one who could never leave art history behind.   

My work is about the contemporary world viewed through the lens of the sublime.  Edmund Burke in the 18th century connected the sublime with experiences of awe, terror and danger--sensations all too evident today.  On the one hand I am drawn to the horrifying yet mesmerizing daily news photographs of destruction--war, terrorism, environmental degradation, natural disasters--that emphasize the fragility of our world.  On the other hand, the awe-inspiring yet evanescent beauty of nature seems larger than the pettiness of humanity's machinations, even as humanity’s actions threaten it.  My art is a comment on both aspects of the sublime.”

–Marica R. Rickard