Covering 75: December 2023

Check out this trippy new take on a classic.

The San Diego arts struck gold in 1965 with the debut of the new Civic Theatre, designed by famed modernist architect Lloyd Ruocco.

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SDM’s January ’65 cover celebrated opening night with a glam-filled illustration by artist D. Wayne “Bunky” Millsap. A packed house, all diamonds, tuxedos, and fur.

In that issue, San Diego Magazine’s Associate Editor Roberta Ridgely captured the feeling of being in SD’s newest home for the performing arts. “A theatre is the shiver of excitement that tingles through the audience at the precise moment when the curtains part,” she wrote.

To celebrate SDM’s 75th birthday, we’ve collaborated with local artists and creatives to recreate classic covers with a contemporary twist in each month of 2023. For our finale, we asked Encinitas artist Taylor Chapin for her unique translation.

“I was interested in doing something in the style of the work that I already do, but updating the music and the space for 2023,” Chapin says. “[In] this age we live in … it’s so important to be closely linked to your identity and brand, so I was really interested in this idea of covering the figure up as a playful critique of this social media age.”

Instead of opera at the Civic Theatre, Chapin’s recreation—a real 32-by-24-inch oil painting entitled Sonic Shift—features a silhouette rock band at the new Epstein Family Amphitheater at UCSD. In place of look-at-me formalwear are anonymous patterned figures, perhaps talking about the shiver of excitement they’re feeling as the curtain lifts.