Under One Sky and Daniel Ketelhut: Shifting Realities at Sparks Gallery

 By Patricia Frischer

Michelle Kurtis Cole

Curated by Sonya Sparks, Owner and Chief Curator of Sparks Gallery (San Diego Cherokees), and Alessandra Moctezuma, Gallery Director and Professor of Art at San Diego Mesa College, the website states that this show Under One Sky deals with three themes: indigenous survival and resilience, art as a recording of knowledge and spiritual  interconnectedness.

This is surely true, but an easier way to see the exhibition is to think about the past, the present and the future.  All three times are present in the work of Michelle Kurtis Cole. We find a buried feather that has to be excavated from layers of history. It reveals a shiny presence, a reminder of the enduring bird species and a symbol of honor, connection to the spiritual world, and the responsibility to live with integrity. It is in fact a modern work of art, that reaches backward to show us the way forward.   

Randi Nuanes gives us a portrait of a young woman in the traditional dress of her tribe. It could be at any period of time.  But it turns out this is a self-portrait of the artist and this is how she actually dresses today. Diana Decoteau on the other hand is depicting a tribal chief, but he is surrounded by all sorts of contemporary notations. The soft encaustic wax paintings of Tiffany Bociek actually have native American women in 19^th century western clothing. They hark back to a nostalgic view of an assimilated culture.

Destiny Green jumps us forward to the present with photographs in circular compositions of women of today. While Destiny Green, the last of the 6 women artists chosen for this article is firmly contemporary with fluttering moths made of dried bougainvillea flowers and a sensual stretch of mirror, like a river holding steady on the horizon.

Finally,  Cody Cottrell  and Carlo Castrejon are moving us forward. Cottrell references Leonardo da Vinci’s Vitruvius Man from around 1490. It not only illustrates the ideal human proportions based on the writings of the Roman architect, but symbolizing the Renaissance connection between humanity, geometry, and the universe. Castrejon man and woman are exploding off the surface of the canvas. The man looks inspired by graffiti tamed by the muralist of our own Chicano Park. The woman is mother earth waiting to spring forward to take us to safety and lead us to a better, more colorful existence. 

This is only a partial view of the exhibition and there are many more artists included from all over the US. As always, we encourage you to go and see for yourself. 

Randi Nuanes

Diana Decoteau

Tiffany Bociek

Destiny Green

Norma Pizarro

Norma Pizarro - detail

Norma Pizarro

Cody Cottrell

Carlo Castrejon

Carlo Castrejon

Daniel Ketelhut: Shifting Realities

Did realities shift...not exactly,  but this enjoyable show did strongly remind one of Arshile Gorky, the Armenian-American who combined abstract expressionism with surrealism….but without the surrealism! Ketelhut starts with a doodle and embellishes which does allow for abstraction, but the expressionism is left in the eye of the beholder. 

Daniel Ketelhut

Daniel Ketelhut

Daniel Ketelhut

Under One Sky and Daniel Ketelhut: Shifting Realities

Sparks Gallery
On view until May 3, 2026
530 Sixth Avenue, San Diego, CA 92101
Hours: Mon, Thurs. Fri 10 to 6, Sat 11 to 7, Sun 2 to 5. Tue and Wed by appointment
More info Sonya Sparks  619-696-1416

Creative Conversations: Rural & Unincorporated San Diego County

 by Patricia Frischer, Photos by Kira Corrillo Corser

TACA: right to left - Kira Carrillo Corser, Carol Zaleski, Karen Tapane, Nancy Heins-Glaser, Debra Muzikar, and Deanne Salleh.

Creative Conversations: Rural & Unincorporated San Diego County was held on Feb 24, 2026 at the California Center for the Arts, Escondido – Conference Center. It was presented by San Diego ARTMatters (Bob Lehman and Felicia Shaw)  and co-hosting  with North County’s newly formed TACA: The Arts and Culture Alliance of Rural North County San Diego.

If you have never been to an event like this, you have missed a great opportunity for networking with your fellow colleagues. The format after the usual thanks you and introductions was to rotate attendee to different tables after certain time limits. The question posed were the usual asks for needs, barriers and opportunities. Sharing information, getting to know each other, and generating new connections was the real focus.

We were lucky to have a wonderful poet Kara Cordero do a call and respond work so we could all shout out that “Art is not a luxury.” Art is essential and we who were gathered know this down to the very pit of our stomachs, event with a lovely breakfast and lunch served by CCA Escondido. 

Christine Jones newly appointed County of San Diego Manager of Art, Film, and Creative Industries.  

Many VIPs were in attendance including Christine Jones, and a selection of members of the County Arts Commission (not in an official capacity) including Sharlene o"Keefe  from Poway, Jim Gilliam from Oceanside who are also members of the NCAN board. 

What follows is just a sample of a very few of the more interesting, news that was gathered just from a few tables.

The Ramona Art Center is trying to get more Latino involvement as so much of their community is connected. This relatively small community was able to generate 20k in grants  this year. Fallbrook and Julien were all represented and contributed.

Vets Arts is no longer in Fallbrook but has moved to a new facility in Vista where they don’t have a foundry but do have a glass and ceramics lab where last year 700 vets were involved in their programs.  

Local history institutes like Encinitas History Society (EHS) are not just about the past. But  how the community comes together now and in the future. EHS has identified over 900 works of art on view to the public in this one city.

The Front Porch in Carlsbad was told about lesson plans from teaching artist especially about local artists, but not just for students but for seniors. The overriding view was that these and all projects need to be flexible and designed with an open mind to the differences and needs of different cultures, ages, and ethnicities. Senior don’t want to be treated like 3^rd graders.

Rural areas can seem foreign to city dwellers. Many of these communities see themselves as pass through cities. You couple that with the truth that many artists have chosen rural areas because they are isolated. The term Back County Artist was used a number of times. But the mood in the room was that they want to be seen. So, the question remains how do they put out a “Welcome mat”. In fact, what does that welcome mat look like.

There was talk of coming together for joint grants for events that united whole areas together. Studio tours, art walks, concerts, festivals, poetry slam but brought together with fresh food markets, restaurant  and hotel promotions/suggestions. The need for a county wide Public Relations Agency just for the arts.

Ending this conversation was a call for all events in April during Arts, Culture and Creativity month in California. the theme this year is Joy, Action and Power. Please list all visual arts events on SDVAN and all others on NCAN.

William Leavitt – Raul Guerrero at Oolong Gallery in Rancho Santa Fe

 by Patricia Frischer 

Raul Guerrero

Raul Guerrero and William Leavitt are friends. Leavitt is a few years older than Guerrero, and was born in Washington DC, but moved to Los Angeles in the 1960’s where Hollywood and the film industry informed his life. Guerrero was born in National City as a Mexican American with indigenous roots and his cultural identity has always been vital to his work including European traditions. He studied in LA at the Chouinard Art Institute. Both were present for the birth of the conceptual art scene.

As Guerrero gravitated in the 80’s to painting, Leavitt spread his wings into photographs, installations, performances,  and theater design. They both blur boundaries from the mainstream and from each other. But although not evident in this exhibition, their humor is probably what keeps them connected. Conceptual meets surreal has got to lead to some laughs.

Guerrero delivers desert scapes which differs from his famous bar scenes, but include lots of the iconography of his visual language. The outstanding Duchamp in the Desert: the Surrealist Synthesis of Raul Guerrero is a true portrait of the combination of all of his influences. The tortoise outrunning the hare is certainly a comment on his own art career.  Guerrero was one of the very first San Diego Art Prize recipients in 2006/7. 

Leavitt’s Circuit Figures are a series of self-portraits as analog synthesizers. They are cyborgs composed of electronic circuits and wiring. You can’t hear any music but you can see that a story is being told here. Since we are more familiar here with the works of Guerrero, you might want to look at this 5 minute video of the installation at the MOCA Grand Ave LA of Leavitt art.

On display at the compact Oolong Gallery are both oil paintings and prints so different price points are available. At over 80, both artists are now influential figures for a younger generation deserving of the museum attention they are now getting. 

Raul Guerrero

Raul Guerrero

Raul Guerrero

Raul Guerrero

Raul Guerrero - detail

William Leavitt

William Leavitt

William Leavitt

William Leavitt

William Leavitt

William Leavitt – Raul Guerrero at Oolong Gallery in Rancho Santa Fe
Paintings – Drawings – Graphics
February 21 – March 21
Oolong Gallery
6030 La Flecha Rancho Santa Fe CA 92067
Tuesday–Saturday 11–5pm by appointment

The Recipe: True Love and Persistence Spiced with Humor at La Jolla Playhouse

 By Lonnie Burstein Hewitt. Photo by Rich Soublet Photography.

 

In the Limelight: Christina Kirk as Julia with Norbert Leo Butz as Paul Child and choreographed set-changers in the background.

Appropriately for a night-after-Valentine’s Day opening, The Recipe is a world premiere featuring an over six-foot tall and rather annoyingly-voiced young woman from Pasadena who manages to discover the recipe for love and success by never giving up her quest for a useful and interesting life or losing her sense of humor. The woman, if you haven’t already heard, is Julia Child, in her pre-TV-chef phase. 

Written by Claudia Shear, whose solo show “Blown Sideways Through Life” about the weird jobs she’d had before finding her way as a writer/performer I’d seen decades ago and never forgotten, it’s another play bound to wriggle its way into viewers’ memories.

In the beginning, Julia Carolyn McWilliams only knows what she doesn’t want: a conventional Pasadena lifestyle and husband. She was not happy at Smith College, where what interested everyone most about her was that she could easily reach things on the highest shelves. 

Nothing else comes easily to Julia, who takes up secretarial skills, hoping to score a position at the New Yorker. When World War II breaks out, she manages to get a job in Sri Lanka as a secretary for the OSS, a forerunner of the CIA.

There her luck really changes: she meets Paul Child, a Foreign Service Officer who was said to know everything. A serious person, 10 years older than Julia and five inches shorter, he fell in love with her, and she found herself loving him. He led her to Paris, where she then fell in love with the art of cooking, and he continued providing support and encouragement whenever problems arose. 

The play was beautifully staged and lit, with moveable sets that were danced in and out by the actors.  And the opening night audience was tremendously receptive, sometimes calling out responses to one of Julia’s lines.

Christina Kirk plays Julia, Norbert Leo Butz plays Paul, and Lisa Peterson has directed this delightful production, with choreographer David Neumann adding the right moves, Rachel Hauck doing scenic design, and Ben Stanton lighting design.  

The show runs through March 28, and tickets aren’t easy to come by, since this Recipe has great word-of-mouth and it’s pretty much sold out. But take a cue from Julia: keep on trying.

 

Go to https://securesite.lajollaplayhouse.org/events where you’ll find the Performance Calendar, and the following suggestions:

The Recipe: Many dates are currently sold out, but tickets may be released closer to performance dates. Go to the website,  join our email list to be notified and follow us on Instagram where we post ticket releases.

Latest news: The Recipe has now been extended through March 29!

Lonnie Burstein Hewitt is an award-winning author/lyricist/playwright who has been writing about arts and lifestyles in San Diego County for over a dozen years. You can reach her at hew2@sbcglobal.net

OMA Artist Alliance 2025-26 Biennial

 by Patricia Frischer

Marie Stone - these subtle colors and a strong composition show
again what we all know...Figurative work is always here to stay. 

It is very gratifying to see this biennial show  improve every other year by every other year. There are always artists to discover and old friends to see. Chantal Paul, and independent curator,  Patric Stillman from Studio Door and Katie Dolgov, OMA Director of Exhibitions and Collections juried the exhibition and made a fine choice. Each work has a QR code so you can hear the artist speaking about their work and the display is respectful which one always hopes for in a juried exhibition. The work that won the first place was extremely deserved  as Trinh Mai continues to gives us emotionally charged and elegantly presented  glimpses into her culturally rich life. 

Brady Willmott - If you like this work also check
out Robert Williams in our A+ Art Blog. Both men are fearless 

Tina Christiansen - a baby bird, not just hungry,
but crying out for all of us who feel like shouting. 

Barbara Hendricks - Orange sun setting on orange groves.
Please note the little 3-D harvester setting on the frame. 

David Fobes - a shout out to Gabriel Boils our SD Art Prize recipient last year who also works with puzzle piece. This work by Fobes shows that this is a rich field to explore. 

Deena Altman - very clever use of both ultra real and drawn elements to make a point about the artist herself. 

John Linthurst

Steven Lombardi

Trinh Mai - First place, yes, these are egg shells
with portraits inside. Watch the video below. 

Kate Joiner

Artist Alliance 2025-26 Biennial
Oceanside Museum of Art
On view until March 8th. 
704 Pier View Way, Oceanside, CA 92054
(760) 435-3720
Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday 11:00am–5:00pm
Extended Hours on First Fridays 11:00am–8:00pm

Politics of Portrayal: Three Generations of Chicana Portraiture in Los Angeles In Conversation with San Diego artists at Mesa College.

By Patricia Frischer

Marianela de la Hoz

Being seen, as has been revealed lately on a mass scale, is a political act. In 1970, the beginning of the Chicano Art movement, being seen as a woman was not assumed. Chicana, the women artists, had the tools and the desire to change that.

Marianela de la Hoz (SD Art Prize recipient), Katie Ruiz,  Ale Ruiz Tostado are the three local San Diego artists joining Los Angeles painters  Barbara Carrasco, Yreina D. Cervantez, Emilia Cruz, Karla Diaz, and Maritza Torres at Mesa College Art Gallery until March 5, 2026. The  local artists were curated by Alessandra Moctezuma joining her selection to that of  Sybil Venegas for Avenue 50 Studio in Los Angeles.

The Baby Boomers in this group are del Hoz, Carrasco and Cervantez. The Gen x group is Ruiz and Diaz. The millennials are Tostado, Cruz and Torres.Graphic design and painting of the civil rights movement in the early 70'a, was replace at the turn of the century by a wider exploration of mediums and the popular culture of clubs and fashion trends. As the millennials come of age, issues of gender and identity and inclusion and the effects of a pandemic with ensuing isolation brings portraiture back as a means of healing and self empowerment. 

Some of these artists are showing some self-portraits but more often portraying members of their own community.  There are many Mexican Americans, but Chicana is a Mexican American woman that is an activist.  Chicana Art is Activist Art, then and now.  

Marianela de la Hoz

Marianela de la Hoz

Marianela de la Hoz

Marianela de la Hoz, “I offer an insight into the hidden character of my subject through visual codes and exaggerated features, using black humor and fantasy to depict the darker side of humanity.”
The small scale of de la Hoz’s  egg tempera work demands that you come up close…says the spider to the fly!

Katie Ruiz

Katie Ruiz

Katie Ruiz

Katie Ruiz detail

Katie Ruiz detail

Katie Ruiz, “My work explores the third culture….that examines the socio-political systems that created Chicana culture which is both and neither Mexican or US American.”
Watch for the references to the clothing in her portraits that are then repeated in the flamboyant elements to her sewn and constructed frames.

Ale Ruiz Tostado

Ale Ruiz Tostado detail

Ale Ruiz Tostado

Ale Ruiz Tostado, “My work offers warmth and a sense of belonging despite melancholic or painful expressions.”
Tostado, like Ruiz, incorporates a whole host of objects attached to her paintings.

Barbara Carrasco

Barbara Carrasco

Yreina D. Cervantez

Yreina D. Cervantez

Baby Boomers: Barbara Carrasco deals with feminist issues issues involving body rights.  Yreina D. Cervantez is part of the famous Self Help Graphic Atelier of East Los Angeles

Karla Diaz

Karla Diaz

Gen X: Karla Diaz, co-founder of  Slanguage a community based alternative, street-influenced and installation heavy collective.

Maritza Torres

Maritza Torres

Maritza Torres

Emilia Cruz

Emilia Cruz

Emilia Cruz

Millennials: Maritza Torres is an Xicana who uses the ancient idea of coldex as inspiration  to create her own family iconography and uses zines to broadcast the work. 
Emilia Cruz is passionate about the rich colors of her culture and depiction of real familiar faces. 

Installation Views

Politics of Portrayal: Three Generations of Chicana Portraiture in Los Angeles In Conversation with San Diego artists
Mesa College Art Gallery
Feb 9 to March 5, 2026
Artist Panel and Reception: Saturday, February 28, 4 – 7 pm
San Diego Mesa College Art Gallery
FA103, 7250 Mesa College Drive, SD 92111
Gallery Hours: Monday through Thursday, 12 – 5 pm, or by appointment. Closed Fridays and weekends
More info: 619.388.2829 amoctezu@sdccd.edu