Trying to define the artistic influences of April Raber might be a little like trying to catch a butterfly with a spoon.
Not gonna happen.
Raber is one of the 140 artists selected to present their work at the Festival of Arts through Aug. 31, and simply getting her to sit in one spot for a little while is a victory unto itself.
Raber, whose medium is oil painting, was born in Hawaii, raised on the rural outskirts of Jacksonville, Florida and spent some formative years in the American West, including living on an Indian Reservation.
But if we want to really trace her roots, her greatest influence has been her family. She is the oldest of 10 children, born to parents who were the epitome of self-starters.
“My parents were designers and innovators,” said Raber, a Laguna Beach resident. “They architected and built their own homes, designed and made most of their own furniture and clothing. They immersed their children in these projects. All of this was inspired by a strong sense of Scandinavian sensibility and influenced by the experience their parents had of being early covered-wagon pioneers in the American West.”
Raber knew, early in her life, that she would be an artist.
“Even at an early age I had a natural inclination for visual rendering,” Raber said. “My favorite was to take my sketchpad and paints and head for the woods. I was fortunate to have a wilderness out my back door. I would spend hours there sketching and painting both small details from nature as well as large vistas.”
She studied fine art at Brigham Young University under several masters, but was particularly struck by the university’s collection of the work of Maynard Dixon. Once she had her degree, the real world beckoned, but Raber wasn’t quite ready for it.
“The next major turning point came when I returned to my roots in the rural American West,” Raber said. “In an effort to stretch my limited resources and still continue painting I moved to a small adobe on an Indian reservation. I was able to paint the real, rural, intermountain west, day after day. I was living those Maynard Dixon paintings. This was a profound experience that even continues to influence my present work.”
Raber’s focus soon shifted again, but this time it was forced upon her.
“Shortly after receiving my bachelor’s degree I began exhibiting my work in galleries,” Raber said. “During this time I encountered and overcame two episodes with cancer. These encounters left a deep impression on my work reflecting not only on the frail nature of existence on Earth, but also our struggle with the perception of opposition.
“It was during this period that I created a controversial ‘dream’ series, renditions of pivotal scenes from the subconscious. These paintings, often autobiographical, deal with emerging self-awareness and growth from the perspective of a woman’s psyche.”
After moving to Southern California in the 1990s, her interest in traditional landscapes began to be more influenced by the urban and industrial world that has been superimposed on the natural landscape.
“Over the years I have turned my attention to mid-Century industrial landscapes, focusing on structures that were built from the 1920’s through the 1950’s,” she said. “These include old railroad yards, bridges, grain elevators, factories, refineries, and generating plants. I approach this new subject matter in the same interpretive style, expanding the traditional California Plein-Air movement.”
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