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.

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

The Apiary: A Bee-Centered Production at New Village Arts in Carlsbad

By Lonnie Burstein Hewitt.

The original cast announcement of the show.

Two views of the Bee Screen onstage. (Jason Sullivan/Dupla Photography).

To bee or not to bee?

That is the question in The Apiary, a dystopic, occasionally comic play by Kate Douglas that originally premiered off-Broadway in 2024, and was directed here by Kristianne Kurner, NVA’s Founder and Executive Artistic Director.

Set 20 years in the future, it’s a play about a small team of women working in an Apiary that’s meant to sustain honeybee populations trying to keep their colonies from suddenly dying out. With plenty of dedication but no funding, they happen to discover that bees can survive by eating the flesh of dead humans…so they begin recruiting terminally ill people to donate themselves to science and keep the bees alive. 

This regional premiere kicked off the theater’s 25^th anniversary year and was the 40^th show presented by Kristianne Kurner, whose note in the play’s program thanked “the many bee experts and bee lovers who shared their knowledge and passion with us about these most fascinating creatures.” 

She also added: “This show encompasses so many of the things I am passionate about: support for female artists, the importance of the scientific community, and the belief that telling each other stories is what brings out the best in us as humans.”

It’s a little too late to see The Apiary, whose actors I actually found more engaging than the play itself, but there’s plenty of time to get tickets for Hairspray, the Tony-Award-winning musical based on John Waters' 1988 film, coming June 5-July 19. 

The Apiary -  Jan 23 until Feb 22, 2026
New Village Arts
2787 State Street
Carlsbad, CA 92008
760-433-3245

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

A Heartfelt Conversation with the Creators of Palpitations: The Cadence of Heartbeats

By Lonnie Burstein Hewitt. Photos by Maurice Hewitt.

The Talk

On the morning of February 3rd in the theater at MOPA, which is now the Museum of Photographic Arts at The San Diego Museum of Art, acclaimed painter Marianela de la Hoz and Grammy-award-winning sound artist Marc Urselli gave their audience an illuminating look into the details of Palpitations: The Cadence of Heartbeats, their innovative installation at SDMA.

The talk was moderated by Deirdre Guevara, SDMA’s Director of Community Engagement, and the audience was totally captivated by the story of their unique collaboration.

Marianela, born in Mexico and based in San Diego, is known for her artworks created with egg tempera, an ancient and painstaking technique that involves egg yolks and was used by Byzantine and early Christian icon painters, reaching its height in the Italian Renaissance with master painters like Botticelli. 

Marc, who lives in New York, said he first discovered Marianela’s work about five years ago, when he dropped in at the museum on a break from a project in L.A. and her altar piece “Heaven and Earth” really spoke to him. He loved multimedia things and thought it would be great if they could do something together. 

Years of phone conversations followed.  Was there a way that a piece of art could play music?  Maybe she could try painting on a speaker cone!  If he used low frequencies, they could even make a piece seem to move. But egg tempera wouldn’t work. The heat created by low frequency sound would cause the piece to crack.

Marianela confessed that she was terrified at first. She couldn’t use her favorite medium and would have to use acrylic, and she didn’t know how she could paint on one of those cones.

“I like to be very detailed,” she said. “I’d have to use gesso and put extra layers on; it would be a completely different experience.”

“For the first year, we just exchanged emails of things we liked,” Marc said. “And we gave each other complete freedom.”

“Everything has a heartbeat, so we chose that as our theme,” said Marianela.

Finally, she sent him a painting… he created sound for it…and Palpitations was on its way.

“We’d even include a speaker that could defy gravity, climb up the walls!” Marc said. “And except for one breakfast in L.A., we didn’t even get together until the installation!”

“Painting the three pieces in the Tryptich took six or seven months,” said Marianela. “And as I was painting The Tree of Life and Death: From Cradle to Tomb, my companion cat died.” 

Her beloved cat, Fausto, who had been ailing, and often curled up on one of the speakers, was dead. “It brought clear to me that there’s nothing that won’t come to an end,” she said, sadly…. and audience members sighed along with her.

                The Tryptich: The Tree of Life and Death: From Cradle to Tomb.

“Each of my paintings is full of details--some of them cryptic to me!” she went on. “You can look for what each character is saying. I write a lot too: how can I express a message that I want people to see and feel?  I didn’t know I could be so detailed with acrylic, but I could.”

War

Hope

“She writes about her pieces before she paints them!” Marc said. “And I wanted the room to be welcoming; I wanted there to be a story told.  There’s the Tree of Life…War…Hope… and you’ll never hear the same thing twice unless you stay there for hours. Every time the lights are turned on, a new sound cycle starts.”

Every sound cycle, he added, takes 7 ½ minutes… and he recommended that visitors stay for that full amount of time, and listen for the different subtle sounds that come up with each piece.

“If you’re there at the right time, you can hear the dead man and the dead cat snoring,” he said. “My intent was to bring as much physicality to a two-dimensional artwork as possible… to insert three-dimensionality…like when you throw a stone into water.” 

At the end, there were heartfelt questions from the audience, and heartfelt responses. 

How would the artists like viewers to respond to their artwork?

Said Marianela: “For me, as an artist, I want people to feel and think and observe my painting…not just say: Oh, it’s beautiful!  It goes with the colors of my sofa!”

Could sound damage the paint?

The audience, myself included, loved Marianela’s response: “I put layers of gesso on…I don’t think it will crack. But if it does, maybe they can find hairs of my cat….”

I had seen Palpitations before, but seeing it again after the Artists’ Conversation, I was able to notice so much more and my experience was fuller and deeper.

If you read this after Feb 22, 2026, Palpitations will no longer be on display at SDMA… but the Tryptich has been donated to the museum, so you may be able to see and hear it there n the future. Until then, we’ve included  a glimpse of some of the paintings here, and I’ll end with the one called  Seikilos Epitaph, which I’ve learned is the world’s oldest surviving complete musical composition. It was found written on an ancient Greek tombstone…and if you look closely, you’ll see its words inscribed in English on Marianela’s piece.

 

Seikilos Epitaph

 

                 While you live, shine.
                Have no grief at all.
                Life exists only for a short while 
                And time demands its toll

 And for a fine musical conclusion, go to this 3-minute performance of Seikilos Epitaph by the YK Band on You Tube.

Palpitations: The Cadence of Heartbeats - on view until Feb 22, 2026
The San Diego Museum of Art 
Balboa Park, San Diego. 

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

The Art of Banksy: Without Limits at the Activity Center of the Del Mar Fair Grounds

 by Patricia Frischer

The story of Banksy is without doubt one of the most amazing art sagas of the last 30 years. His secret identity plays into his subversive philosophy. In fact is he a man, a woman or even a collective? They/he is openly anti-establishment and therefore a hero to a whole generation. But his success in the high-end market is the twist that makes the story complicated. 

That old Groucho Marks comment, “I wouldn't want to belong to a club that would have me as a member.” seems to apply. As does the one by Mark Rothko who withdrew his painting from the Four Seasons in New York, stating, “anybody who will eat that kind of food for those kind of prices will never look at a painting of mine”.

Banksy arranged for his  Girl with Balloon (2006) painting that sold in 2018 for over a million at auction, to be shredded when the hammer came down. It was retitled Love is in the Bin and sold in 2021 for $25 million.  This show gives a wide selection of works unofficially attributed to Banksy. No one really knows who makes the money from the sales but a company called Pest Control is set up as the authentication specialist and they make money from this service.  

This show has about 200 artworks, with some certified originals which are not identified and many, many replicas/reproductions.  This is a traveling exhibition produced by Sorina Burlacu started in 2019 in Romania and has been in as London, Vienna, Seoul, Singapore, Melbourne, São Paulo, Mexico City, and multiple U.S. locations.  The work we all know is the stenciled pieces created right on the walls and they remain favorites. Some of these originals have been torn off their walls and changed hands. Yes, he makes fun of the police, but he often humanizes them. So it is the social currency which is the lasting value of his works.

The array of other works in this exhibition is rather staggering. There is a room full of master works that have been commandeered like the Monet that has old shopping carts dumped into the pond. Classical sculptures are cleverly vandalized.  But there are also album covers, installation like the bathroom, the phone box, the hotel room.

Try to allow time to watch the video documentaries, the hologram of Banksy speaking (no, you never see his face but the hoodie is a trademark outfit), the mirror room. Banksy has been involved in many conflict-affected areas which are showcased. Below is a drawing he gave to a hospital during COVID to show how nurses are the real heroes of our communities.  A sculpture of a boat load of refugees was so poignant. There are ways at the exhibition to contribute to MV Louise Michel - a charity that helps refugees and rescues migrants in distress at sea in the Mediterranean. Parker Edison is the project manager who took an empty shell at the Activity Center at the Del Mar Fairgrounds and transformed it. The Parker Edison Project is a KPBS podcast featuring insightful conversations about creativity and community.

CD disk cover

Album cover

Dismaland

“Exit Through the Gift Shop.” 

Magnets so everyone can afford their own Banksy...better yet make one for yourself. 

Don't forget to look up. 

Don't forget to look down. 

Patricia Frischer is the founder and coordinator of the San Diego Visual Arts Network. She writes these visual art reports for SDVAN covering the entire region of San Diego, as well as a monthly  A+Art Blog. Reach her at patricia@sdvisualarts.net , Remember to list your SD arts events on SDVAN

P.S. A Love Story Behind The Art of Banksy
By Lonnie B. Hewitt. Photos by Maurice Hewitt.

Xavier Pacheco and Sorina Burlacu on Opening Night in Del Mar.

For me, a special event on opening night was getting to meet and chat with Xavier Pacheco, Production Manager of the exhibition, who shared with me his personal story of love and art.

Originally from Chile, he met Art of Banksy’s producer Sorina Burlacu, who is from Romania, four years ago, when she brought her show to the Centro Cultural Gabriela Mistral (GAM) in Santiago, Chile, where he was the manager. 

It was pretty much love at first sight, so they needed to meet again, somewhere between Chile and Romania. They decided on the Bahamas, and they’ve been touring together with the show ever since. 

The Banksy Hologram

Xavier and a Chilean team created the hologram, which really calls out to be seen in person. Here’s my favorite Banksy quote from this piece: “Monet had light, Hockney had color; I only have a few minutes until the police get here.”

This month, the happy couple were in Bucharest, where they now live, and then went on to London, to “refresh” the show there.  They’ll be back here in April to close out the Del Mar show, which continues through April 19.  If you haven’t seen it yet, you have time, and it’s something you won’t want to miss. 

I’m closing out this love story with a Banksy piece I love and hope you will too.

 

Not just monkeying around.

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

The Art of Banksy: Without Limits
Del Mar Fairgrounds Activity Center
2260 Jimmy Durante Blvd, Del Mar 92014
On view through April 19, 2026
Exhibit hours:
Noon to 8 p.m. Mondays-Thursdays
10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays
10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sundays
 Tickets start at $22