Christina Waters

Abstractions - an ambitious and colorful exhibition of original artwork opens this Friday at a quartet of Santa Cruz County Banks throughout the county. Inspired by energy, emotion, and the environment, seven women artists explore the expressive qualities of line, shape, and form in these abstract explorations.

Artists Beth Shields, Barbara Johnson, Sara Friedlander, Wendy Barrett, Cheryl Doering, Barbara Kreitman, and Sarah Healey, are all showcased in an exhibit curated by Joan Blackmer.

Artists’ Reception March 7, 2008, 6-8pm at Santa Cruz County Bank 325 Soquel Avenue, Santa Cruz. (above, Shields, Blue & Orange Mantra)

On view M-Th, 9am-5pm, Fri 9am – 6pm, the show continues through May 23rd 2008 - at Santa Cruz County Banks throughout the county.
Capitola- 819 Bay Avenue
Santa Cruz – 325 Soquel Avenue
Scotts Valley – 4604 Scotts Valley Drive
Watsonville – 595 Auto Center Drive

Recent paintings by Tom Maderos - plein air and still life specialist - will fill the interior of Gabriella Cafe starting on March 10. The show, which continues through May 5, will show off Maderos’ expressionistic skills with oil on canvas. If Diebenkorn had painted the Santa Cruz coast, the effect might be close to the luscious composition of Maderos’ color-saturated work. (”El View Lodge” shown here.) Like those of the Bay Area school of the 1960s, Maderos’s flat picture plane is rich with sensuous color, unexpected spatiality and the figurative pushed almost to abstraction. Unfussy, almost effortless (at least in appearance) these artworks will keep diners company as they enjoy the edible artwork of chef Sean Baker.

Maderos’ paintings are also available, “to go,” if you get my meaning. I have one of his austere floral studies hanging in my office.

Gabriella Cafe - 910 Cedar Street in downtown Santa Cruz.

China — its art and history, inspired a new museum-wide exhibition opening this weekend at the Museum of Art & History, in downtown Santa Cruz. Based upon relationships brokered by curator Susan Hillhouse, the ambitious network of presentations involves collaborations with dozens of artists from China and California, and with Chen Gallery of Santa Cruz. Thanks to April Chen, a working artist’s studio typical of those in China will be recreated on-site, among other displays of Chinese furniture and crafts. In addition to the photography of Beijing artist Wang Ningde and Shanghai artist Wang Dong Ling, who lived in Santa Cruz from 1989 to 1991, the show explores the work of local art practitioners who have visited and been inspired by China. Thse artists include Sara Friedlander, Victoria May, Gloria Alford, Wallace Boss, Dana Eaton, Mattie Leeds, Joel Magen, and Gary Snider.

Ying: Inspired by the Art and History of China opens February 23 and continues through June 29. Not to be missed!

Take a breather from Open Studios and visit the new show of paintings by Frank Galuszka at Carmel’s Winfield Gallery.

Myth and the Coast is the title of a suite of 20 recent coastal landscapes and a few mythic surprises by UCSC Professor of Art and longtime plein air impressionist Galuszka.

Winfield Gallery is located on Dolores, between Ocean & 7th.
831/624-3369 - 800/289-1950

The Galuszka show of original artworks runs through November 11, 2007.

(Shown here, detail of Coyote in the Kitchen)

Wrapping up our tour of this year’s SSC festival, we bundled up for a nighttime performance of The Tempest, an atmospheric bit of surrealism-in-the-redwoods. Thanks to ingenious visuals by costume designer Brandin Barón and lighting design by David Lee Cuthbert, this Tempest sparkled with eye candy. And once again, the most interesting part of seeing all the plays this year is the chance to experience the deep texture created by the repertory casting. As Prospero, the shipwrecked Duke of Milan, James Winker reminds us, “We are such stuff as dreams are made on.” But just last week, I’d been regaled by Winker as the linguistically inept Dogberry in Much Ado About Nothing. The same dramatic resonance occurs in the case of Prospero’s daughter, Miranda - played by Barbara Suiter, who also plays the much maligned Hero in Much Ado. The Tempest’s splendid Caliban is played by Omar Ricks, whose singing enchants Much Ado audiences. The repertory casting lets us watch the range of the actors across at least two separate dramatic scripts. And the glen, as always, more than earns its reputation as a magical performance space — a softly hooting owl high up in the trees added a touch of “brave new world” fantasy during last Saturday’s performance.

Wanting to sink into Shakespeare’s strange saga of humans, gods, beasts and spirits, I found myself distracted by uncertain direction and a few casting issues. More…

This is the way the world ends, said T.S. Eliot, echoing an old, old refrain. Imagine Jim Morrison moaning, “This is the end my friend.” That was just a decade after Samuel Beckett gave the world his absurdist Rorschach test, Endgame. Allusions to the cult classic lace the musings of cultural observers, psychologists, talk-show hosts and political pundits — and now you can find out exactly why Beckett’s one-act fistful of existential wit and devastating dialogue has been so influential.

An astonishing Paul Whitworth (shown here) leads the Shakespeare Santa Cruz production of Endgame. See this week’s GT Weekly for my review, and watch this page for an expanded critique.

Considered one of the bite-sized gems of modern drama, Samuel Beckett’s harrowing bit of existential razzle dazzle, Endgame, is currently available to haunt our dreams. If this season of Shakespeare Santa Cruz is the last to showcase outgoing artistic director Paul Whitworth, it is arguably the best platform yet for that actor’s astonishing trove of talent. Two things need to be said right off. Whitworth’s performance as Hamm in this production is incandescent — even for those who have seen and admired him in years past, this will prove a jaw-dropping experience. What also needs saying is that Beckett’s play is theater for grown-ups. At less than two hours in length, with no intermission, it requires stamina, focus and engagement — on the part of the audience, as well as the actors. Those who like their SSC light and breezy, might find Endgame far too challenging for their powers of concentration. This is not a romp in the glen. That said, this production is a powerhouse of wordplay and absurdist magic. And not to be missed. More…

The Rosecrans Project Art Exhibit, is the work of San Diego-based sculptor Brad Burkhart, whose inspiration for the project is the process of envisioning a post-war world. The opening reception is this Friday, June 29, at 6pm at Louden Nelson Center.
It began when Burkhart was visiting the Rosecrans National Military Cemetery in 2003, where soldiers from every major US conflict are buried. After sitting alongside the graves of those soldiers – including the first American to die in the current Iraq war — Burkhart’s creative response was a series of bas-relief sculptures, entitled The Rosecrans Project.” More…

Porcelain artist Jenny Morten is at it again — plan to show up at Esplanade Park in Capitola, on June 24 to be amazed by Morten’s delicate vases and bowls in colors of the sea. Sumptuous stuff. “Art at the Beach” - it was good enough for Monet. It’s good enough for me!

Come up and see what talent, hard work, great instructors and an Irwin scholarship, can create. The annual Irwin Scholarship exhibition - opening Wednesday, May 30, 5-7pm at UCSC’s Sesnon Gallery — is entirely packed with some of the best from some of the brightest. This year’s scholarship recipients — Michael Allison, Nicola Buffa, Katie Dorame, Kevin Dwyer, Adam Harms, Ian Paul, Henry Plant, Sean-Michael Rau, Maria Schoettler, Augustus Thompson, Olivia Vegh — are painters, photographers, installations artists, sculptors, printmakers, whose creativity has been helped by the support of the William Hyde and Susan Benteen Irwin Scholarship Fund.

Juicy artwork, a free public reception, what’s not to like? The gallery is located at Porter College, and is open Tues-Sat, noon to 5pm. For details, check the Sesnon website. See you on Wednesday.

This year’s New Music Works Avant Garden Party is seasoned - both musically and culinarily - with the complex spices of Thailand. This Sunday, June 3 from 3-7pm, the mysteriously tropical island and lagoon located in a mythic corner up the upper yacht harber, will host a rare and beautiful display of Thai Piphat Music and Dance by the ensemble of Wat Buddhanusorn, the brilliant a capella work of the Ariose singers directed by Michael McGushin, a world premier of interactive installation Ttitriadic Chimes, songs by Paul Hindemith and compositions by NMW founder Philip Collins.

But for the hungry and thirsty, just know that your $35 adv/$40 door ticket price also gets you tipples from an array of wines, beers and exotic beverages - plus the al fresco Southeast Asian delicacies from the woks of Jozseph Schultz and David Jackman. More…