Westmont Ridley-Tree Museum of Art (in Santa Barbara, CA)

For reasons I’ll be sure to detail later, it was a bit of a miracle when we arrived in Santa Barbara, California. Seeking a peaceful refuge, we soon found the Westmont Ridley-Tree Museum of Art.

Well, I didn’t initially know where we were going. I just searched “art museum” on Google Maps, a little dot appeared in the mountains above Santa Barbara, and we headed toward it.

We curved our way up through dry wooded roads, past long driveways, around buildings neatly tucked away, and then through what appeared to be elegantly landscaped grounds.

We went from wondering what the Westmont Art Museum was to wondering what Westmont was. Signs soon informed us.

Westmont was a college—a religious liberal arts college. The Westmont Ridley-Tree Museum of Art was located inside Westmont College.

This museum was open to the public. Admission was free. And photographs were allowed.

I was so intrigued. What might be on display in an art museum that was located inside a religious liberal arts college?

We walked in and found an art exhibit by Linda Ekstrom, Straddling Circumference.

Linda Ekstrom’s poetic fabric and paper art spoke feminist volumes, mostly through her exploration of Biblical text, with a few non-religious influences.

The Santa Barbara Independent described her work like this…

“For Ekstrom, the Bible is a living, evolving fount of inspiration, not an inert text with fixed meaning. Just as Biblical scholars and seminarians parse potential meanings and revised references, her artistic means involved interpreting and reexamining the Bible, and exposing the patriarchal nature of the book and religion at large.”

I don’t mean to obnoxiously bold that last sentence, just boldly bold that last sentence.

Because, as someone who grew up with loving immigrant grandparents and loving elder neighbors, all of whom took me to church, I felt loved in church environments.

But I also listened to what was said during sermons. And the words didn’t always mesh with my factual observations, endless thinking, and practical sense.

I felt that just about everything was based on individual interpretation and I wanted to hear that noted loud and clear before every sermon. To remind everyone of perspective.

Especially since I witnessed some base their sermons on love, then some base their sermons on fear to maintain power and control, it seemed.

So I truly enjoyed how Linda Ekstrom shared her religious observations through art.