Rubel, Natasha (1964-) | University of Illinois Archives
Name: Rubel, Natasha (1964-)
Variant Name: Sasha Rubel
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Historical Note: Natasha "Sasha" Rubel was born in 1964 in Champaign, Illinois to Lee A. Rubel, a computer scientist and mathematician at the University of Illinois (1958-1993), and Nina Rubel, who worked as a journalist for the Urbana Courier and News-Gazette between 1958 and the 1990s. Sasha Rubel earned her Bachelor of Science in Art degree from the University of Wisconsin in 1986 and her Master of Art in Art Therapy from Chicago's School of the Art Institute in 1990. Growing up in the Urbana-Champaign community during the 1980s gave her many opportunities to attend rock concerts held at Mabel's, a popular venue for local and regional rock bands such as the Vertebrats and Captain Rat, for which her older brother, Mark Rubel, played bass guitar. When her fake ID no longer enabled her to get into the popular music venues where these local band played because she was considered a minor, her parents would take turns chaperoning her in these bars. "My dad would do mathematics in the dressing room, smoking a cigar, with napkins stuffed in his ears to block out the sound, oblivious to the hubbum around him. For me, I loved the music and the crowd. It was electric." After completing her Master of Art degree, she returned to the Urbana-Champaign community to pursue her career as an artist.