Recently, at dinner with some Quad Cities politicians and lobbyists, I was asked to name the "best" local artists. Feeling put on the spot, I waxed regal about the subjectivity of art and how critical acclaim and commercial success are but two measures of artistic achievement.
There's plenty of hub-bub surrounding the new Trinity at Terrace Park Hospital in Bettendorf that opened last week. With good cause, too. After all, it's the first hospital for Bettendorf since its incorporation 100 years ago.
From the ethereal to the surreal aptly describes the art exhibits by Gene Anderson and David Hast currently on display at Midcoast Fine Arts Gallery at the Mississippi Valley Welcome Center in LeClaire, Iowa. The ethereal comes from Gene Anderson's large, modernistic sculptures that mimic the smoothing effect eons of time have on boulders and stones.
The fat lady didn't sing, so I guess the opera isn't over. Instead, it's just beginning, with City Opera Company of the Quad Cities' first self-produced opera, Mozart's The Magic Flute. And if you think opera is stuffy, the production the organization staged this past weekend at the Galvin Fine Arts Center would have proved you wrong.