Prominent Santa Ana Artist Janice Lowry Gothold Dies

Santa Ana’s cultural legacy loses a key member with the passing of artist and scribe Janice Lowry Gothold, who died of liver cancer  in her Santa Ana home on September 20.  She was 63.

Janice Lowry Gothold

OC Weekly named Gothold the area’s best visual artist in 2007.

Her work and journals are on display at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC.  Gothold started keeping a diary at age 11 to “prove” that she “existed.” And over the next 50 years, these journals became increasingly visual.  The journals, 126 volumes with a collage-type body of work, became part of the Smithsonian Institution’s permanent collection.

A memorial service for Gothold will be held at 2:00 p.m., October 10, at the Episcopal Church of the Messiah, 614 N. Bush Street in Santa Ana.  In lieu of flowers, the family has asked for a donation in her name to Taller San Jose, a continuing education program for at-risk youths. Go to www.tallersanjose.org for more information.