Nancy Gifford and her art installation piece Lament

Some of you may remember my trip to the west coast to tour graduate programs with my son several years ago. I wrote a post about an art installation I happened onto while exploring UC-Santa Barbara while he had meetings there. The artist was Nancy Gifford, and her installation, titled Lament, took up an entire wall inside the university library. 

I was absolutely stunned by this art installation, taking photos from a distance, close up, and truly wishing there were a way I could bring it all home with me. I still remember walking into the large room where it was and seeing it and realizing it was made entirely of books. 

Unfortunately my photos were taken with my phone and weren’t very good, which is why I’m not re-posting them today. 

About a month ago a comment showed up for moderation from Nancy Gifford herself! She had been doing some online searching and came upon my blog post. She wanted to thank me for writing about her work and to say how happy it made her that I loved it so. She also told me it now has a permanent home in Santa Barbara’s Main Library. 

I so hope that anyone reading this who travels to Santa Barbara in the future will schedule time to go to the Main Library and see this piece. 

Best of all, Nancy’s website has excellent photos of the installation as well as a video that shows the process of the work. Since we’re mostly staying at home right now, what a wonderful armchair travel experience to explore this wonderful piece.

GO HERE to see Lament and the video, and be sure to explore all of Nancy Gifford’s art on her website. 

I was absolutely thrilled to see her comment and happy to share with everyone, again.