Biography

A resident of Woodacre, California, for over forty years, Connie Smith Siegel was a landscape painter, educator, activist and leader in the field of art and healing. Born April 20, 1937 in Colorado Springs, Colorado, she was raised by her mother Josephine Smith. She received her MFA from the University of Colorado, Boulder, in 1962, and first taught Art and Art History at Amarillo College in Texas. She went on to become a tenured Associate Professor and the first woman Chair of the Art Department at the University of Colorado, Denver. Connie moved to California in 1975 and taught at the California Institute of Integral Studies and JFK University. She gave private workshops and classes at her home and other venues for 35 years and was a visiting artist/teacher at Sonoma State, UC Santa Cruz, and Esalen Institute.
 
In 1966 Connie’s life was transformed by discovering the practice of Sensory Awareness in a workshop led by Charlotte Selver and Charles Brooks, on Monhegan Island, Maine, where she had gone to draw. It was there she met her husband of twenty years, psychologist Leon Siegel. For decades Connie attended SA workshops and study groups, incorporating the practice into her teaching methodology. She was President of the Sensory Awareness Leaders Guild from 1988 – 1992. With Leon, Connie created an expressive process combining Drawing and Color with Sensory Awareness to explore decisions, challenges, and issues of healing. This self-guidance process became the core of Connie’s teaching, and inspiration for writing her three books: The Spirit of Drawing, The Spirit of Color, and Creating Peace: The Healing Language of Drawing and Color. Connie believed deeply in the healing nature of art, and that art-making belongs to everyone. Perhaps her greatest hope was that the process she developed would live on, helping people to heal, connect with nature, and find their artistic selves.
 
Connie Smith Siegel was a prolific and dedicated fine artist, a landscape painter recognized for her “spirit of place.” She had mastered many techniques and media and had a profound knowledge of Art History. She painted outdoors across Marin and Sonoma, and traveled widely to find beautiful vistas and scenes to transform into lively plein air canvases in oil, acrylic, or pastel. Each October she drove her campervan to the Sierras to capture the radiance of the golden aspen. In the Spring she could be found drawing the blossoming plums in the San Geronimo Valley. She was intrepid in her explorations of hills, trees, mountains, deserts, streams and coast. Her work was featured in many solo and group exhibits and is represented in many collections, including the Achenbach Foundation at the Palace of Legion of Honor, San Francisco International Airport, and the Oakland Museum. She was represented by William Sawyer Gallery in San Francisco and Robert Allen Fine Art in Sausalito. With help from friends Connie held two retrospective shows just before the pandemic, at the San Geronimo Valley Community Center and at Toby’s Gallery in Point Reyes Station.

Connie was a peace and environmental activist, a founding member of Artists for Social Responsibility. Her landscape banners, with quotes from Helen Caldecott and Chief Seattle, were used in anti-nuclear protests in the 1980’s. Connie was a life-long learner in Consciousness and Intuitive Studies, Expressive Arts, Dance, and Poetry. She worked with the pioneers in movement and expressive therapy: Anna Halprin, Gabrielle Roth, Natalie Rogers, John Fox, and others. Connie practiced Buddhist meditation with Tibetan, Zen and Insight teachers for 25 years. She was a longtime student of Nonviolent Communication. She was a member of the ‘Artist Potluck Group,’ local artists who met to share and critique their art. She championed the work of others, and the Potluck group exhibited together as a result of her tireless efforts. Connie created and celebrated community with her enthusiasm for the arts and her welcoming, inclusive way of being. Her receptions often incorporated musicians improvising to the art and poets reading. She was a vibrant and devoted dancer well into her 80’s.