Another year has come and gone, and for the greater Santa Maria Valley and beyond, the arts proved it still has a strong foothold in the community.
And it was a busy year for local artists. Everything from ballet to poetry to abstract art to photography and stage seemed to ascend to an ever-higher perch, thanks to exposure and a growing population, eager for more.
Art on the Central Coast wasn’t all about paintings or musicals. In 2018, groups of filmmakers began popping up throughout Lompoc, Santa Maria, Solvang, and other areas, looking for a less restrictive and more affordable environment than traditional locales such as Los Angeles. Filmmakers like Cindy Kilagawa left LA and returned to their hometown roots to make independent features and shorts, including Coast, which was shot in Santa Maria.
It was impossible to resist the Pacific Conservatory Theatre’s (PCPA) production of Mamma Mia! a play that revisited the original hit Broadway musical around the same time Meryl Streep and Cher hit the silver screen for the sequel Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again. What better way to say “Thank You For the Music” than with Allison Rich playing Tanya, Melinda Parrett as Donna Sheridan, and Kitty Balay as Rose, making up reunited girl group Donna and the Dynamos. Molly Dobbs as Sophie made a huge mark on the local theater scene with her singing skills, and the comedy stylings of Eric Stein, Tim Fullerton, and Michael Tremblay nailed it as the men who may (or may not be) her father. This was exactly what we want from a PCPA musical: big numbers and big songs performed with boisterous enthusiasm.
Gallery Los Olivos kicked off the year in January with Tranquility, a multimedia show that featured work by some of the gallery’s popular members. Artists, photographers, and sculptors such as Paul Roark, Terri Taber, Carrie Givens, Deborah Breedon, and more pushed beyond the traditional elements of the Los Olivos art gallery scene to showcase abstract and impressionist work, which raised the bar for the rest of the year’s shows.
The Elverhoj’s Museum of Art and History’s 30-year retrospective pulled off the seemingly impossible. Guided by the vision of Executive Director Esther Jacobsen Bates, the Elverhoj’s retrospective managed to not only showcase its historical roots but highlight the museum’s bold and innovative vision for local arts in the future. The work of a younger generation of local artists, such as Luis Ramirez (work pictured), featured side by side with the masters who inspired them conveyed a strong sense of unity in an arts community where non-traditional artists can sometimes feel left out. History may have passed us by, the exhibit reminded, but art is still moving forward.
Women took center stage in 2018 in many ways, and in the local art world, the women who make up the Rose-Compass art collective—Connie Connally, Holli Harmon, Libby Smith, Nicole Strasburg, Nina Warner, and Pamela Zwehl-Burke—were a big part of the scene. Their show, A River’s Journey, at the Wildling Museum of Nature and Art delivered more than just a spectacle of talented painters. It was a blistering look at an environmental crisis in California, as the women each told the story of the Santa Ynez watershed, often pushed to its breaking point after fires and development took its toll. It was art that told the powerful story, portrayed by some of the region’s most important artists.
If there’s one person whose performance on stage this year made an indelible impression, it’s Craig Scott. Scott, (who popped up in the Santa Maria Civic Theatre’s 2017 production of Young Frankenstein) made a dramatic scene-stealing turn as Norman Thayer in On Golden Pond. The Lompoc Civic Theatre’s production of the classic play was captivating, but it was Scott who breathed new life into a familiar role, starring alongside Josephine Grande as his long-suffering but truly beloved wife, Ethel.
Art students, including those at Allan Hancock College’s annual Student Art Show, proved they were ready for a bigger audience in 2018. Painters such as Linda Metaxas (work pictured) and photographers such as Evan Ross showcased their impressive talents at the Ann Foxworthy Gallery in work that was oftentimes understated, visionary, and highly introspective.
This is a PCPA show that still haunts me to this day. Lisa Peterson and Denis O’Hare’s jarring retelling of Homer’s classic, The Illiad, through one woman. Tarah Flanagan, with little more than a ladder, sand, and a broom, re-created the most brutal moments of the Trojan War in a devastating performance that asked questions about war, violence, misogyny, brotherhood, and the often unseen slivers of human compassion that give our brutal world hope. In the classic words of Lady Gaga, it was “talented, brilliant, incredible, amazing, show stopping, spectacular, never the same, totally unique.”
With so few venues for public art in Santa Maria, it’s hard to overstate the importance of the ongoing display at the Santa Maria Public Airport. Valley Art Gallery in Orcutt curates a unique and diverse show every two months, including new artists in the community as well as established favorites. It’s free and it’s fun; everyone should make it a part of their regular viewing routine.
There was one show that stood out among all others for its celebration of the power art has to truly impact and change lives. The annual stART Art Show, featuring artists from Vocational Training Center (VTC) and hosted by CORE Winery in Orcutt, featured some of the most captivating and fun art this year. The community turned out in droves, snapping up all of the artwork in an enthusiastic show of support.
One of the boldest and most innovative exhibits in 2018 was the stunning Reopening the Book, which ran at the Elverhoj Museum of Art and History from February to April. The exhibit showed what artists do best—take a common object or idea and turn it on its head to tell a broader story about humanity and society at large. Dozens of pieces from an eclectic array of artists including Mary Price, Jill Littlewood, William Davies King, Linda Eckstrom, and Bonnie Thompson Norman and many more overflowed the Elverhoj gallery, in a kinetic celebration of art, books, and the people who love them.
One of the most stunning and simple exhibits to grace the Central Coast was courtesy of Harold Ramsden. The longtime Santa Maria-based photographer trained his patient eye on a number of subjects, including the natural world surrounding him. While many photographers and painters use landscape as their subject matter, Ramsden’s unique ability to tell a broader, often darker, story about his subjects set him apart in a sea of formidable competition.
The Santa Maria Civic Theatre continued to prove that it’s more than just the Little Theater That Could—it’s a magnet for powerhouse talent, manned by a group of dedicated theater disciples who give each performance as though they are on Broadway. In 2017, I sang the praises of Hairspray, and this year they outdid themselves with Little Shop of Horrors, a production that brought laughs and huge voices to classic numbers. They evolved a lot in 2018, and it’s exciting to watch where they go next.
This article appears in Dec 27, 2018 – Jan 3, 2019.