SHELLY CONE

At any one time, approximately 4.5 million people drive up and down Highway 101, one of the last remaining and longest U.S. routes still active in the state. Most of those drivers are traveling to and from business. About 30 percent of them are searchers, roadtrippers seeking the Holy Grail of roadtrippery: the story to […]

Having lived in Lompoc for nearly 30 years, Gil and Vicki Andersen know a thing or two about the area. That retro storefront in Lompoc’s Old Towne? They know it. The way the light creates shadows at La Purisima Mission? They’ve seen it. And given that they’re artists, they don’t just look at things—they examine […]

The empty storefront in the breezeway of Santa Maria’s Town Center West has potential. Lots of windows make for plenty of natural lighting. The white walls stand tall and barren, devoid of even a drop of color. It’s all a big blank. To the artists at the Town Center Gallery, no gallery space has ever […]

Long before it became the City of Arts and Flowers, Lompoc was simply the City of Flowers. The moniker was an obvious one, given the fields in bloom and the many seed manufacturing companies that dotted the area. Lompoc resident Bess Christensen recalled first coming to Lompoc in 1964 and getting a tour of the […]

There’s no other way to describe artist Bill Shinn’s ceramics studio: It looks like the aftermath of the Mad Hatter’s tea party. Shinn isn’t slighted by that description. “Someone else said that, and I kinda like it,” he said. Since this story is about a little teapot, the description is even more fitting. Tucked in […]

Artists are always looking for means of invention, exploring untapped frontiers in search of the original. Then again, sometimes what’s old is new again. In the latest exhibition at the Betteravia Gallery, photographers explore early, low-tech photographic methods to express themselves. The Santa Barbara County Arts Commission will present Iron and Plastic: Alternative Photography, curated […]