Larger Than Life
Joie de Vivre, owned by Chris and Bob Emmons
Written by Charles Donelan
Aristides “Aris” Burton Demetrios is perhaps best known for the contemporary public sculptures he created in Northern California, but his work plays an equally prominent role in homes and institutions in Santa Barbara and Montecito.
Since moving here with his wife, Ilene H. Nagel, in 1998, Demetrios fulfilled more than 100 private commissions for many of the most elegant estates in the region. In a bold abstract style and with a penchant for revealing emotion through form and gesture, Demetrios gave his clients playful, humanistic works. Whether it was putting a Fiddler on the Roof for Kirk and Anne Douglas, designing a whimsical sculpture for UCSB’s Sir Anthony Cheetham, or highlighting the family feeling of friends such as Bob and Chris Emmons through a composition of ten acrobats, Demetrios used sculpture as a universal language of optimism and love.
Born in 1932 in Lincoln, Massachusetts, Demetrios came to California by way of Harvard College and the U.S. Navy and enrolled in the architecture school at UC Berkeley, where he began to make large-scale pieces. Santa Barbara residents can enjoy Demetrios’s work on the West Campus lawn of Santa Barbara City College, where his fountain, Mentors, celebrates faculty and students, and at the Ridley-Tree Cancer Center, where Dance of Life embodies a positive message of peace and vitality.
Demetrios, who passed away in December 2021, is sorely missed by his many friends here and around the world. Fortunately, his work lives on in thousands of homes and public spaces, as an indicator of lives well lived and the power of an artist to bring joy to the world.
