Arts

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 […]

As you make your way into the children’s theater at the Santa Maria Public Library, a look outside might convince you you’re in another world: children at play with bugs of all sorts decorating the wall directly across from the theater. Artist Glenda Stevens’ newest mural for the library was made possible with a donation […]

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 […]

Fifty-five Fiction is once again upon us. We, at the Sun, can predict the arrival of our annual literary competition with nary a calendar in sight. The anticipation begins in spring, with the slightest of mental twinges, followed by electric charges of excitement intermingled with panic. The masses of entries are on their way; many […]

“How do you think he survives in there?” “Maybe it grows a spear out of its head and shocks the other fish that get near. Maybe it’s the Electric Spear Fish that mutated out in the desert.” We were leaning over the deck at the Silver Saddle Ranch & Club contemplating the moxy of a […]

What’s better than traveling up and down the state seeing the beautiful sights California has to offer? Seeing those sights through the creative eye of an artist with a macro lens and digital enhancing prowess. Patricia Stalter and Sharon Foster bring the highlights of California to their two-person exhibition California Gold on display at Shepard […]

[image-3]Expression is more than just a means of communication, often it’s a means of releasing emotion and an aid to healing. For the artists in the Art of Recovery exhibition, being encouraged to express themselves has given them the chance to say what’s on their minds in pictures when words are hard to come by. […]