The OC Art Blog was created in 2004 as a way to build community and promote the marginalized but dynamic Orange County art scene.

Painter, curator, and educator David Michael Lee has been a stalwart of the Orange County art scene for many years now. Lee's work hangs in several prominent collections including the Phyllis & Ross Escalette Permanent Collection of Art. He serves as Director and curator for the Coastline Art Gallery and has a long history of creating various "happenings" in Orange County, many during his stint as a member of the now legendary Santa Ana Seven. If all that isn't enough, Lee is also one half...

17 March, 2014 /

I know a concert was good when every time I try to sit down and write my review of it, I get distracted by composing music myself instead. This was most gloriously true of the Children of Bodom concert at the Observatory in Santa Ana on March 2, supported by Tyr and Death Angel. Even though I love the word, I reserve it only for special occasions like this one- fuck… Children of Bodom were so fucking good. That does sum it up, but I...

09 March, 2014 /

The landscape-painting industry has had a hold on Laguna Beach for so long that the very idea of landscape in the resort town by the sea is inevitably fraught with cliché, but Thursday night's art walk provided some fresh perspectives on the genre with the work of two master painters at the Laguna Art Museum and the photography of Tom Lamb at Forest & Ocean Gallery. [caption id="attachment_5729" align="alignleft" width="254"] Wayne Thiebaud's Waterland, 1996, oil on canvas[/caption] Wayne Thiebaud, raised in Long Beach and still painting at...

09 March, 2014 /

Friday, MARCH 7 is the big annual Art Walk anniversary event taking place at the Fullerton Museum Plaza. Fullerton Art venues come together this one night to celebrate local life and art! Fullerton has been voted one of the top 3 best downtown areas in Orange County, and understandably so! With new boutiques, restaurants, bars, galleries and artist dens popping up around every corner, this small downtown area has become one of the best artistic communities in Orange County. Over the past few years, Fullerton has...

28 February, 2014 /

[caption id="attachment_5667" align="alignleft" width="229"] Carlotta Corpon, Space Composition with Chambered Nautilus[/caption] California’s identity is inextricably tied to its landscape, and has one of the most varied geographies in the Union. Attempting to capture California landscape art and its evolution for over a century is already ambitious in scope. However, California Landscape Into Abstraction: Works from the Orange County Museum of Art, OCMA's current exhibit, goes beyond an examination of 19th and 20th century California landscape and - as a result of thematic organization, a broad definition of...

26 February, 2014 /

An MFA exhibit currently on view at Cal State Fullerton installs a fantastical world of imagination in the campus' West Gallery, but like a wonderland apparition it's only up for a few days, so if you'd like to see it in person you'll have to visit soon! Tiffany Ma, who over the past few years has been involved with feminist collective performance art as part of the "Guerrila Gowns" project and was in the recent "Rage Bear" show at downtown Santa Ana's GCAC, studied photography...

23 February, 2014 /

By Jared Millar This weekend saw the opening of “STOCK | California” at Coastline College’s Costa Mesa-adjacent gallery which overlooks the (as yet) undeveloped coastal wetlands of the Lower Santa Ana River. Much of the work in the show consists of collage or mixed media, playing with the definition of “stock” that relates to paper stock or card stock. Standout images include Elena Mary Siff’s playful collages and unique book objects and Julie Easton’s striking construction of burned cigarette papers with iridescent paint. Also on exhibit is...

06 February, 2014 /

It is common enough to be considered a universal experience, taking place within the realms of childhood, that when the sun goes down the imagination has full reign. The shadows that exist in closets or under the bed become dense, so much so that anything a little person could possibly imagine could exist within them. Eventually our brains become trained through experience that nothing need exist out of nothing and that the world provides us plenty to think about without the aid of our imaginations....

01 February, 2014 /

What do you do if you are a respected gallery owner and a highly anticipated show looks like it won’t come to fruition just one week before the opening? If you're Peter Blake you somehow pull together three solo shows of leading LA-based contemporary artists, within days of the opening event. On Saturday night at the Peter Blake Gallery in Laguna Beach ­­it appeared as if this was the plan all along: the shows were as flawlessly put together as we have come to expect...

30 January, 2014 /

The second wave feminists of the 1960s famously coined the phrase "the personal is political". This is true of a vast number of issues, yet often times the very personal impact of political policies gets lost in the furious debates about fiscal impacts of laws or the hypothetical scenarios debated on television talk shows. At a time when immigration issues are hotly debated topic in United States politics, art can be a powerful tool that helps us connect to the personal stories within this multifaceted...

29 January, 2014 /

“Do some living and get yourself a typewriter.” ― Charles Bukowski, [caption id="attachment_5505" align="aligncenter" width="545"] Tim Youd at GCAC[/caption] On a recent Friday night Tim Youd sits in front of a small table at the Grand Central Art Center in Santa Ana typing away on an Olympia SG-3 electric typewriter, shifting his gaze between the Phillip K. Dick novel to his left and the typewriter keys in front of him. When he reaches the bottom of the page he re-inserts the same sheet back in the typewriter and...

11 December, 2013 /

Tis’ the Season for the December OC Art Walks! This month we highlight some of the special events at each location including openings, receptions, books signings and parties (Fullerton is looking pretty lively this month). Get out there, have some fun, see some art and tell us where the best eggnog is: Text by Natasha Shah, graphic by Jared Millar...

05 December, 2013 /

I have been a fan of Maggie Taylor’s surreal dream-like images for almost a decade, ever since a friend used her digital collages as cover artwork for his homemade CDs. Taylor combines 19th century daguerreotypes, original photographs, scanned objects and old etchings, to produce fantastic, imaginative, and mysterious images. I first described her work while covering the Digital Darkroom exhibit at the Annenberg Space for Photography in 2011, and was excited to meet Taylor in person and discuss her art work during the signing of her latest...

22 November, 2013 /

Surreal, dream-like images inhabited by the solemn countenances of people from a bygone era, set in fantastical landscapes and surrounded by a strange assortment of animals, an arc of bees or random objects; these are the magical images of Maggie Taylor. Taylor creates astonishingly complex digital collages combining original photographs, 19th century daguerreotypes, scanned objects and vintage etchings, to produce imaginative and mysterious photographs. [caption id="attachment_5429" align="aligncenter" width="436"] The Nest[/caption] Walking through the Joanne Artman Gallery in Laguna Beach where her work is currently on display, the...

22 November, 2013 /