Dennis Shives: The Art & Soul of Ojai

With his height, flowing blond hair and most often being barefoot, Dennis Shives is among the most singular, and representative, of Ojai's citizens. Ojai born and raised, Dennis has made his living as an artist - both musician and visual artist - ever since. He claims inspiration from his grandmother, who taught art until age 91. His career was honored with a very memorable retrospective of his seven decades in art at the Ojai Valley Museum in 2017. (See Mark Lewis article, OQ Fall 2017). His life may be his greatest work of art. He's worked with sculpture, silver and gold smithing, painting and "whatever else intrigued him," according to the feature, including memorable 4th of July parade floats. His most recent project was to recreate the solar system for Earth Day celebrations, with schoolchildren acting out the part of the planets, asteroids, comets and sun. We talked about Ojai's essential identity as a haven for experimentation and discovery, making a living as an artist, his lifelong fascination with bears and the changes that have overtaken Ojai in the past few years. We did not talk about Major League Baseball's new rules, the expeditions of Fridtjof Nansen or the famous yellow ceramic glaze of Otto Heino. Check out Dennis' work at DennisShivesArt.wordpress.com.