Gene Holtan (January 28, 1930 - November 30, 2016) was a Canadian-born artist based in California. Born in Saskatchewan, he studied at the Provincial Institute of Technology and Art (now Alberta University of the Arts) in Calgary but did not graduate. He also studied at the Art Center (now ArtCenter College of Design) in Los Angeles. Dropping into the charged political atmosphere of 1960s America, Holtan worked as a commercial artist but excelled at caricatures, including political satire, which appeared in Ladies’ Home Journal, Good Housekeeping, Rolling Stone, and The New York Times. After leaving Los Angeles for a stint in San Francisco to work for Ramparts magazine, Holtan moved to Santa Cruz in 1974, where he resided for the remainder of his life. He continued to produce illustrations for a wide range of works, including postcards, children's books, and a book about bird watching, as well as drawings of Santa Cruz, which were donated to the Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History.