Jane Gottlieb has been making art for over 45 years, using her own photographs as the foundation for her vivid and often dreamlike pieces. With a deep understanding of color and composition, she brings a unique and joyful energy to everything she creates. Her work has been shown widely in both public and private collections, as well as museums and corporate spaces. Recently, she was featured in an exhibition at the UCSB Art, Design & Architecture Museum, and her work is part of the permanent collection at the UCSB Library in Santa Barbara, California.
Gottlieb’s art is instantly recognizable: vibrant, surreal, and unapologetically colorful. She transforms ordinary architectural elements, landscapes, and everyday scenes into electric visions that feel more like memories from a vivid dream than photographs grounded in reality. Her process begins with a photograph, but what emerges is something altogether different—something imaginative, heightened, and visually ecstatic.
“Going Up & Up & Up”
“Going Up & Up & Up” is one of those images that stops you in your tracks. At first glance, it’s a simple escalator going up to a bridge or skywalk. But under Gottlieb’s hand, it’s turned into a trip into another world.
The colors explode. The sky is a searing blend of neon orange, electric blue, and deep violet. The railings are outlined in pinks, yellows, and purples—like candy-coated stripes pulling your eyes upward. The escalator itself, typically a gray and functional thing, is now a shimmering path of hot blues and fuchsia shadows. The scene doesn’t look real, and it isn’t meant to. It’s a re-imagined reality, warped into something euphoric.
Palm trees rise alongside the escalator, but they’re not your average California palms. Their trunks are textured and green like reptilian skin. The fronds at the top are bursts of orange, magenta, and lime, defying any natural color palette. The trees don’t ground the image—they lift it, just like the stairs.
What’s striking is how Gottlieb takes something mundane and transforms it into a celebration. An escalator is a transition, a liminal object. It gets you from one place to another. But here, it’s the star of the show. Gottlieb forces you to notice it, to pay attention, to look up—literally and emotionally.
There’s a sense of movement in the piece that lives up to its title. You can feel the ascent. It’s not just visual; it’s emotional too. The piece pushes you into optimism. The title, “Going Up & Up & Up,” becomes a mantra. This isn’t just an image—it’s momentum.
Gottlieb’s signature is her fearless use of color. Where others might hesitate, she leans all the way in. There’s no attempt to balance or mute anything here. Everything is saturated and loud, but somehow it all works. That’s where her skill as an artist shines—her compositions are wild but controlled. It’s not chaos; it’s celebration.
The perspective in this piece is also worth mentioning. She centers the viewer on the escalator—you’re not looking at it, you’re on it. You’re moving. It feels immersive, and that’s part of her genius. She doesn’t just present an image, she puts you inside it. You’re a part of the world she’s invented.
What’s also refreshing is how fun it is. There’s no cynicism here. No irony. It’s not trying to be heavy. It’s joyful. And in a world that often feels cynical or drab, Gottlieb gives us something unapologetically bright. She reminds us that color is energy, that looking up can change your mood, and that art doesn’t have to be serious to be serious.
“Going Up & Up & Up” is a perfect example of Jane Gottlieb’s approach: reimagine the everyday, amplify it with radiant color, and deliver it back to us as something full of life. She’s spent over four decades doing this, and she’s not slowing down. This piece, like its title, feels like a promise that there’s always higher to go.
