Linda Lauderbaugh in her Idyllwild “Over the Rainbow” gallery displays her newest favorite art medium — a black, recycled glass raven.Photo by Marshall Smith
Linda Lauderbaugh in her Idyllwild “Over the Rainbow” gallery displays her newest favorite art medium — a black, recycled glass raven. Photo by Marshall Smith

Artist Linda Lauderbaugh does it all – commercial displays, murals, fine art, sculptures, garden art and her current favorite, art using recycled glass. She and husband Rene Eram recently opened their gallery, “Over the Rainbow,” on North Circle Drive, featuring a spectrummed mosaic of Lauderbaugh’s art.

A San Jose native, Lauderbaugh studied painting and communication design (illustration) and graduated from Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles. She also trained in France and Italy. Her fine art shows classic European influences but her commercial and muralist art is bracingly American.

Lauderbaugh honed her commercial display skills as a young artist at the iconic Tower Records Store on Sunset in West Hollywood. She later created displays for Trader Joe’s. For the last 18 years, Lauderbaugh has been a muralist, creating murals for Madonna, Rod Stewart, Mike Epps, Stewart and Miles Copeland, David Caruso, Coldplay and others. Her work has been seen in the Society of Illustrators Annual, L.A. Style Magazine, featured on The Discovery Channel and seen in galleries across the country. “I have been very lucky,” said Lauderbaugh. “These things [commissions] just come to me.”

One of her commissions of which she is most proud is a “dimensional mural” she constructed for interior designer Carolyn Von Der Ahe’s daughter who became blind at the age of seven. “I created a three dimensional and experiential mural,” said Lauderbaugh, “with a tree with holes to put fingers in and then when one did that, cricket sounds started. I created a giraffe with satin spots which she could feel, a zebra with black velvet stripes and a gorilla that roared. I had cotton clouds on her bedroom ceiling so that her father could hold her up to touch them. The idea was to make it beautiful so that her sighted friends could also come in to enjoy the mural. The project was featured on The Discovery Channel.”

But it is with relocation to Idyllwild that she and husband Rene are finally relaxing, happy with their “Over the Rainbow Gallery,” and settling into a less hectic Idyllwild lifestyle. “I named it ‘Over the Rainbow’ because I feel that is where we’ve landed.” Her newest projects, featured at her gallery, are sculptures using recycled glass. She has two at the gallery now, an emerald green deer head and a black glass raven. “I just try to keep myself interested,” said Lauderbaugh. “I have five or six projects going at one time.”

Asked what her favorite art medium is, given that she creates in so many, Lauderbaugh said that now it is using recycled elements. “I just glue things on,” she laughed. “But I also love the lusciousness of pastels and the smell of oil paints. I love it all.

“Mostly I love the freedom that this place has given me. Idyllwild has given me another life.”

For more about Lauderbaugh’s art see www.socalartist.com.