Ojai Valley News
“Bakersfield Mist,” currently playing weekends through May 27 at the Ojai Art Center, has partnered with the artist community by featuring a different piece of art in the show each week. The play is about a suspected Jackson Pollock painting found in a thrift shop. The paintings have become the third character playing opposite Maude (Lee Ann Manley) and Lionel (Paul Sulzman).
To create this third character, director Susan Kelejian reached out to the arts community in the Ojai region with a competition for the best “Pollock.” A four-judge artist panel selected four winners and two honorable mentions. Each weekend, one of the winning paintings is used as the “Pollock” and after the show, the audience is invited to talk with the painting’s creator, leading to discussions into the truth of art, the value of art and an underlying theme of the play, the value of people.
“This has turned into a dynamic exchange,” says Kelejian, who moderates each evening. “First, people are so surprised by the play, its quick wit, rapid-fire dialogue, surprising laughs and more. But they are also affected by the themes of not only the value of a painting and who has the right to decide, but the value of a person just because they aren’t like you. I took on this play because it was about truth. Now joining the acting and visual arts elements of Ojai together, ‘Bakersfield Mist’ reflects a wider meaning to the community.”
Paintings by winners
Vonder Gray, from Ventura (May 4 through May 6) and Kenny Dahle, of Ojai, (May 11 through May 13) have already been featured in the play and are now on the theater walls. The remaining two winners are Gary Best, from Ventura, whose painting will be featured May 18 through May 20, and Clay White, from Ojai, whose painting is on tap for May 25 through May 27.
All of the artwork is on display in the theater through the end of the play and a silent auction is under way for each piece.