Much of this exhibit is literally a palimpsest of Greg Botts’s recent paintings. More than half the pictures were created using a two-step process. The images begin as large, painted plein air sketches done in daylight in the various landscapes-from Aspen, Colorado, to Madrid, New Mexico-that Botts calls home.
Entering the theater in their trademark hand-on-shoulder formation, the Blind Boys of Alabama wore tuxedos with festive red bowties. But once the singing began, those ties got loosened pretty quickly
-there’s nothing uptight or restrictive about the Blind Boys’ version of gospel.
The rows of white votive candles that line the steps leading up to this show symbolize the care and passion with which it was assembled. The artists have made a shrine to the Mexico of their experience and imagination that is as sacred and secular as its subject.
From the opening notes of the evening’s first piece, Edvard Grieg’s Holberg Suite, Op. 40, it was clear the Santa Barbara Chamber Orchestra has never been more healthy, vital, and spirited. Without the presence of a guest soloist, it was easier than ever to hear the individual musicians, and to understand why they take such pleasure in their programs.
As great American heroes go, George Washington enjoys a durable preeminence. He’s a double threat, as both a military commander and a statesman. The whole “first President,” “father of his country” mythology still packs a wallop. And even that wacky, apocryphal childhood story about the cherry tree has its charm. But the general has never been much of a buddy figure.
Before funk, before rock, and even before rhythm and blues, there was gospel. Gospel revues packed into automobiles crisscrossed America throughout the 1940s and ’50s playing venues big and small, spreading the word about God with sweat-drenched, soul-shattering harmonies and rough-edged, powerful vocal solos.
The Ballad of Billy Lee helps the title character shine, even in George Washington’s considerable shadow.
This group show hinges on the idea that light has achieved such currency as an art medium that it no longer need be considered strange or new. Just like oil paintings or bronze sculptures, it suggests, light works have been around long enough to exist without justification as artistic innovations.
Following a busy fall hosting the Lit Moon World Shakespeare Festival, Westmont College continues to explore innovative concepts in theater, most recently with last weekend’s The Car Play Project. The audience gathered at 7 p.m. at the edge of a parking lot where 16 automobiles were circled around a central pavilion structure lit with Christmas lights and stocked with cookies, hot coffee, and apple cider.
Charlie Haden radiates a rare kind of strength, and from the warm reception he and his Quartet West received at the Lobero last Wednesday, Santa Barbara knows it. Whatever the connections that make Haden such a favorite in our town, this special affection was in ample evidence from the opening notes of his packed show.
