A Painted Haiku

Lloyd Dallett @ Kim Kieler Gallery

Through the blending of contemporary design elements with Asian accents, artist Lloyd Dallett aims to find the ‘still’ in still life. Thirty pieces of her most recent work were unveiled during a recent opening party at the Kim Kieler Gallery, where they will remain on display through September 10th.

“Life is a moving target,” said Dallett. “I think that’s why I like art so much. It allows for an element of control and calm in a world that is overrun with variety and stimulus.”

Dallett vividly remembers falling in love with painting. “I remember the moment I became an artist very clearly,” said Dallett, who described her delight in taking painting classes at a friend’s house and seeing Matisse’s work for the first time. “We were dressed in smocks and given real canvases; I can still remember the smell of the oil paint. I was eight years old.”

After moving with her family to San Francisco from Long Island at age eleven, Dallett soaked up a whole new palette. “I’d get on a bus and go to the Academy of Art College,” she said. “At sixteen, it was amazing to feel that independent and just go and paint.” Dallett graduated from The Thacher School in Ojai, where she spent as much time as possible in the barn-turned-studio developing her portfolio in preparation for art school. “Painting is hopeful,” she said. “You can always paint out the things that don’t work. There are endless possibilities.” She went on to study at the University of Colorado Boulder before transferring to the Boston Museum of Fine Arts School and Tufts University. She also spent time abroad studying drawing in Munich.

Although she has only been to Asia once, Dallett has had a life-long fixation with Asian themes and subjects, which frequently show up in her work. The show at the Kim Kieler Gallery includes several pieces with textures inspired by a favorite book of kimono patterns or the shoots of bamboo Dallett sees outside her studio. Dallet also frequently travels to France, having lived a year in Paris and completed two artist residencies there. She has painted a series based on the map of Paris, which also appears in the show.

In addition to her great love of color and texture, Dallett finds the greatest inspiration from the support of her husband Richard, an independent cinematographer for TV and film, and their twelve-year-old daughter, Lucia. “When you have a family, it’s not just you in the world,” she said. “That kind of support is so important when you’re an artist.”

Dallett spent three years as a textile designer in New York City and the remainder of her time there painting from her studio in Chinatown, but it took only three days of visiting with friends in the Santa Barbara area before she and her husband decided to relocate. “We were ready to move out of the city,” she said. “I knew the area from having gone to school here and it felt like coming home.”

Kim Kieler Gallery is located at 1 N. Calle Cesar Chavez, Door 5. For more information, call 899-2299 or visit www.dallett.com.

CASA Magazine, June 18th, 2010

In Retrospect: Bits of Color Thrown on Paper

Paul Cormack @ CASA Magazine

In search of the adventure of a lifetime, artist Paul Cormack headed from his native Australia to New York City at the age of 27. And he found it. His personal journey is documented in a selection of twelve paintings spanning four decades of his creative work, currently on view at CASA Magazine for the month of June.

“My art is like my diary. It is an illustration of my story,” said Cormack. “Painting has been a way of healing and understanding for me and has been a life long joy and a continuous surprise.”

Cormack grew up in a little country town in Australia, the middle of three boys. Although always interested in art, Cormack was largely left to his own devices in terms of study. “When someone put up a few paintings in a building downtown and called it a museum, I became fascinated with the idea that you could put paint on a canvas and hang it on a wall,” said Cormack. But it was a pocketbook of Rembrandt paintings that further sparked his interest as a teenager, prompting him to dedicate his life to art. Cormack attended the Australian National Art School in Sydney, studying for three years within the historic stone walls of a prison-turned-conservatory.

With not more than $1,000 in his pocket and the names of a couple of friends, Cormack soon headed to New York City. “When I look back, I would never have had the nerve to do it today, but I was young and adventurous then,” he said. After seeing some dresses in a storefront window, Cormack blew his last $30 on pink chiffon, beginning what would become a lucrative career in the fashion industry as a specialty designer. He landed jobs designing for high-end department stores like Saks Fifth Avenue and Bloomingdales, as well as specialty boutiques across the country. “Fashion was really about making an income,” said Cormack. “It was about selling things and making a living. But I always approached it from the technical side of figuring out how it all comes together. And I love color.”

It wasn’t long after arriving in New York that Cormack found his way back to painting. “My favorite piece in the show is one I recently titled Clarity I. I hadn’t painted in about a decade and I did this pastel drawing I just loved, so I turned it into a painting. At that time, I felt I had found my own clarity and sense of what I do and who I am,” said Cormack. “When I did that painting, it reinforced that I am an artist.”

Cormack moved to Santa Barbara two years ago in search of a new adventure and a new take on his artistic career. In addition to continuing to develop his own body of work, Cormack hopes to take on private students or in a classroom setting. “I’ve learned a lot over the years,” he said. “It’s time now to impart some of the knowledge I’ve acquired and help young people to develop their own creative process.”

CASA Magazine is located at 23 E. Canon Perdido. For more information, call 965-6448 or visit www.Cormackart.com.

CASA Magazine, June 11, 2010

Program II: Verbal Interludes

iMEE: Infinite Movement Ever Evolving @ The Lobero

Through the innovative collaboration of artistic mediums, the artists who make up Infinite Movement Ever Evolving (iMEE) remind us that violins can dance, sculptures can breath, and dancers can speak.

Under the artistic direction of ex-State Street Ballet dancers Spencer Gavin Hering and Andrea Dawn Shelley, the interdisciplinary group of artists drew on their collective talents for iMEE’s second Santa Barbara showing during two performances at the Lobero on June 4^th and 5^th.

Entitled Program II: “verbal interludes”, the performance was true to its name with eight distinct mainpieces linked together through verbal and musical interludes. With violin in hand, theatrical artist and gifted musician Graham Patzner served as a guide between the us and the them, linking the audience to the dancers through poetry, spoken word, music, and song, much like a barefoot troubadour – part clown and part maestro.

The ambitious program included several Santa Barbara premieres as well as a few fan favorites, such as Ivonice and Dichotomy. In 4Ward & 4Gotten, a quartet of dancers explored our complex relationship to friends and family – the support they offer sometimes helpful and other times confining. Frozen Angels followed as a pas de deux danced to the Pablo Neruda poem “I Like For You To Be Still” with dancers refusing to be so.

Following intermission, the curtain raised on Acquiescence, which featured a looming, open steal box, crisscrossed with white, spider web-like threads. Although striking, the sheer size of it competed with the dancers, who, as a trio were engaging on their own; Paola Georgudis particularly so, given her strength and dynamic flair.

In keeping with the interdisciplinary approach, Interludium captured the iMEE dancers on film in a light and fun improv game of ‘tag you’re it’ while La Follias’ Folie featured the work of guest choreographer Jerry Opdenaker. Patzner, acting as ballet master, conducted the dancers in an exuberant, mini-ballet performed beautifully beneath a series of serpentine shapes suspended from the rafters. Conglomerate brought the performance to a close, punctuating the performance with a final statement of iMEE’s artistic vision: “We, as a whole, keep the art of dance alive. Breathe the breath of dance and keep evolving and growing with us as... Infinite Movement Ever Evolving.”

If you missed the show, check out iMEE on YouTube or visit www.infinitemoves.com. Or, better yet, look out for iMEE the next time they’re in town and get tickets to the show!

Caption: iMEE Artists Andrea Dawn Shelley and Cristian Laverde Koenig. Photo by Mike Mesikep.

CASA Magazine, June 11, 2010

Matters of the Heart

The woman sure knows how to milk a crescendo. In true diva style, Patti LuPone soared on clear tones before breaking into wide and powerful vibrato during her much-anticipated appearance at The Granada on Thursday, May 13th.

Known for her iconic roles in blockbuster Broadway productions like Evita, Sweeney Todd, and most recently, Gypsy, LuPone showed a softer, more intimate side during her one-woman show Matters of the Heart.

Beginning with her six-year old, sandbox crush, LuPone shared the autobiography of her heart with help from pianist Chris Fenwick and a flirty string quartet.

LuPone took on all the ecstasies of love in a musical songbook that included beloved musical theatre songs like Not a Day Goes By from Stephen Sondheim’s Merrily We Roll Along and Hello, Young Lovers from Roger and Hammerstein’s The King and I, as well as several pop songs including Cyndi Lauper’s Time After Time.



Despite her signature chocolate-covered-caramel tone, LuPone threatened to blow right through the speakers, which buzzed dangerously whenever she reached full capacity. LuPone was at her best when she sang a moving duet with the lone piano, tearing away the mic to reveal an unfettered and expressive range. Whether singing of the melancholy woes of the heart or the sidesplitting hilarious tales of the bedroom, one thing was clear: it’s all about love.



“Love makes the world go ‘round,” said LuPone, echoing lyrics from Carnival as she bade farewell to the audience. “Look for it no matter how it is returned. I wish you love.”



If you missed the performance, a selection of songs from the performance can be heard on the musical compilation Matters of the Heart.

Caption: Patti LuPone. Photo by Ethan Hill.

CASA Magazine, May 21, 2010

Promoting Peace with Books, Not Bombs

UCSB A&L: An evening with Greg Mortenson

Having spent a lifetime under the gaze of the world’s tallest peaks, it is no wonder that climber-turned-humanitarian Greg Mortenson exudes an inner calm and a warmth of spirit that could melt a glacier. Mortenson recently made a visit to the Santa Barbara area to share his vision of promoting peace in the volatile regions of Northern Pakistan and neighboring Afghanistan through education, especially for girls – one school at a time.

“There is an African proverb I learned as a child in Tanzania,” said Mortenson, who spent his youth on the slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro. “‘If you educate a boy, you educate an individual. But if you educate a girl, you educate a community.’”

Seventeen years ago, Mortenson built his first school in Korphe, a village he wandered into after a failed attempt to summit K2, the second highest peak in the Karakoram Range. After seeing children scratching their lessons in the dirt, he vowed to return and build them a school. Despite obstacles including everything from an armed kidnapping to tea with the Taliban and a CIA interrogation, Mortenson and his crew at the Central Asia Institute have now successfully built over 140 schools, as well as countless temporary schoolrooms for displaced refugees.

Mortenson’s adventures are chronicled in the New York Times bestseller Three Cups of Tea, now required reading for troops going into Afghanistan, and continued in his second book, Stones into Schools: Promoting Peace with Books, Not Bombs, in Afghanistan and Pakistan. During his presentation, Mortenson credited the wives of key military figures for bringing the book to their husbands’ attention. Mortenson’s dedication to the power of literacy, especially for women, has come full circle, it seems. The word may yet prove mightier than the missile in the fight to wage peace in the world.

In addition to sharing his story to a sold out crowd at the Arlington Theatre, Mortenson spent time in local schools and shared three cups of tea with the Santa Barbara Middle School Teen Press corps. Seventh graders Lili De Voto and Emily Dewey conducted an exclusive interview with Mortenson while Mark Godges performed a rap he composed in celebration of Mortenson’s work, both of which can be viewed on the SBMS Teen Press website.

“I had no idea that having three cups of tea was so important. After meeting with Greg, everything clicked. I realized how much one person could do to change our world,” said Dewey, who learned that after the first cup of tea, you’re a stranger; after a second cup, you’re a friend; after a third cup, you’re family. “When you're reading Three Cups of Tea, it's just an outside perspective,” added De Voto. “But when you actually talk with Greg or get involved, you see what a big difference he is making.”

To learn more about Greg Mortenson and the Central Asia Institute, visit www.ikat.org. To see the SBMS Teen Press in action, visit www.sbmsteenpress.org.

CASA Magazine, May 14, 2010

Made in Santa Barbara

Larry Keigwin + Co @ the Lobero

With a knack for taking everyday movements and dancifying them in amusing ways, choreographer Larry Keigwin holds a living mirror up to our lives, so that life itself becomes a dance. A past SUMMERDANCE participant, Keigwin returned to Santa Barbara with Keigwin + Company for DANCEworks 2010. The month-long, creative residency inspired two brand new pieces, which were showcased recently on April 23^rd and 24^th at the Lobero.

The program opened on a breezy note with Air, which took dancers dressed as airplane pilots and stewardesses on a ride Up, Up and Away, followed by Wind, set to a pulsing, rhythmic score by Philip Glass. Triptych took an edgier turn with dancers dressed in provocative, hard-core costumes, showing Keigwin’s exploratory range and increasingly more complicated step patterns. Following intermission, Keigwin kicked it into high gear and viewers were treated to a preview of his newest work, Exit, with original music composed and performed by Chris Lancaster. Set against the naked back wall of the Lobero, boys in skinny jeans and girls in pink and black party dresses danced an amplified, angsty narrative while Lancaster rocked out on an electrified cello.

Finally, utilizing the talents of over 50 local, non-dancers, Keigwin brought the familiar characters of the Santa Barbara scene to the stage in Bolero Santa Barbara. Using the beach as a natural starting point, the dancers utilized beach towels, hula hoops, and beach balls in a West Coast echo to Keigwin’s Bolero NYC, complete with a dance party that spilled off the stage and got the audience dancing – in true Santa Barbaran style.

If you missed the performance, ask your friends and neighbors about the show. Chances are, one of them was in it! For more on Larry Keigwin + Company, visit www.larrykeigwin.com.

Caption: Exit (2010) and Bolero Santa Barbara (2010), photos by David Bazemore

CASA Magazine, May 7th, 2010

The Lang Lang Effect

CAMA @ The Granada

The musicians in the Schleswig-Holstein Festival Orchestra may be no older than 27, but don’t let that fool you. As demonstrated during a recent CAMA performance at The Granada on Friday, April 16^th, these young people already represent some of the finest musicians in the classical music world – and certainly a promise of what the future holds. Couple that with 27-year-old Chinese piano sensation Lang Lang, who joins the orchestra as a soloist on its first ever North American tour, and you’ve got an exhilarating rush of talent packed into one evening.

Under the expert direction of Maestro Christoph Eschenbach, the impetuous impulses one might expect from a youthful orchestra were replaced instead with an understated calm – even when the music called for zippy scales or twittering trills, as Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 1 in D Major, aka the “Classical” symphony, often does, the musicians maintained their impeccable balance. The connection between conductor and orchestra was such that Eschenbach needed only to glance at a section to communicate his musical ideas. In fact, most of Eschenbach’s energy went into holding the group back, much like a herd of hot-blooded thoroughbreds at the starting gate. Eschenbach’s style seemed to have a similar effect on Lang Lang’s performance of Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 17 in G Major, K. 453, written when Mozart was only 28. Known for his flamboyant performances, the rock-star of the classical music world played the concerto as if pulling sound like taffy from deep within the keyboard, resulting in a fluid, suspended resonance that hung in the air like a light balloon. Despite the quieting effect Lang Lang’s slow, balletic movements had on the crowd, everyone leapt to their feet yelling for more. After a series of bows, Lang Lang complied and generously played Franz Liszt’s Liebestraum No. 3.

The program ended with Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 in A Major, Op. 92, which Richard Wagner famously dubbed “The Apotheosis of the Dance.” Eschenbach maintained his elegant control over the orchestra, which played with nearly perfect transitions and seamless endings, but their sound really took off as individual musicians took more risks and were visibly carried away by the dancing spirit of the music.

If you missed the concert, learn more about the Schleswig-Holstein Festival Orchestra by visiting www.shmf.de and check out Lang Lang’s YouTube channel at http://www.youtube.com/user/langlang.

Caption: Lang Lang (photo by Detlef Schneider)

CASA Magazine, April 30, 2010