Susanna Baumgart was the Geography Department’s Artist, Photographer, Webmaster, Writer, Editor, and Publisher from 1998 to 2005. Susanna lived for her artwork, and her dream of having a major solo exhibition of her work came true shortly before her untimely death, thanks to the Santa Barbara Dream Foundation (see the April 22, 2005 News article; the photos in the exhibition can be seen here).
Susanna’s artwork ranged from illustrating children’s books to nature photography. Her artwork for the Department was prodigious and included innumerable posters, many unique creations for faculty, and the graphic presentation of the history of the Department, which remains on permanent display in the Department. Susanna’s personal favorites among the posters she created for the Department can be seen here. As Susanna was fond of saying, “Ars longis, vita brevis”: Art is long, life is short.
At the right:
- Winter 2000 Colloquium poster – Dr. Strangemontello, a parody on the film poster Dr. Strangelove, created when Prof. Dan Montello gave a Colloquium talk titled “Dr. Montello, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Geography.” The talk was a discourse on the Geography of beer.
- “Men In Geography” poster: two Geography Department staff spoofing the “Men In Black” poster for their official staff photos, Winter 2000.
- The USGS had been using a quilt-blanket metaphor to explain the proposed National Map. This illustration wound up in much of their literature, on the cover of a NRC publication, and in many USGS Powerpoint presentations.
- At the beginning and the end of the school year, Geography has been holding a BBQ for some years. The June 6, 2003 BBQ went Hawaiian. The original photo was taken at a Luau on Maui (Lahaina) September 2002 by Susanna Baumgart, but the faces on the poster are of professors Sara Fabrikant, Keith Clarke, and Dan Montello.
- Mission bells in the water lilies—the best selling photo at Susanna’s solo photography exhibition in Santa Barbara, held shortly before her death.
