by admin | Apr 12, 2013 | Uncategorized
I’ve been going pretty non-stop since, oh, January of 2012. That is when things ramped up in my life. It all began with a trip to Brittany, France with a group of people from Louisiana. Well, aside from being a full time artist, wife and mom, I also serve as the president of a small non-profit organization, NUNU Arts and Culture Collective, which has become my “other” full time job. Our organization is based in Arnaudville, Louisiana – a town of not more than 1,500 people, was the brain child of visionary artist, George Marks. The cool thing about Arnaudville is many of the people there still actively speak French, both Cajun and Creole, I, unfortunately, don’t. Our organization celebrates the language, arts and music of our region. I could go on, but it’s better if I just give the website where you can learn more about it, www.nunucollective.org.
Anyway, back to my crazy life. NUNU’s was visited back in December of 2011 by folks from the French Consulate in New Orleans. Well, they were so impressed with our little organization, and saw such similarities with another organization in Brittany, they felt we had to meet. George organized a group of us and we packed our bags and flew off to Paris, then hopped on the train to Redon to meet with Marco Félez of Les Articulteurs. After 24 hours of travel we were greeted by a most amazing host of people. They were the volunteers of a festival held there, “Bogue d’Or.” They were having their celebratory dinner and we were invited guests. Such wonderful people and what an amazing experience. We listened to traditional chant and danced traditional Brittany dance. This was the beginning of a wonderful partnership, though we didn’t know it yet.
We brainstormed about the many different ways we could work together. In Rennes, France there is a festival, La Grand Souffle that celebrates accordion music. Well, we have a whole lot of that in Louisiana. In October of 2012 the festival featured Zydeco musicians from Louisiana, a seed was planted!
Moving forward, this April, from the 19th to the 24th, our organization is hosting the first ever “Semaine Française d’Arnaudville”. Helping with the organization of this event has been a lot of work, but quite rewarding. The amazing support from community and regional leaders, the support of the French Consulate, and the connections with all the wonderful folks is simply amazing. During French Week we will have over 60 folks coming from out of state and country to attend the conference. That doesn’t even include all the people from our Louisiana region. The conference is about Creative Placemaking. You can learn more about the conference at www.semaine-francaise-arnaudville.org.
So, this is what has pretty much kept me from working in the studio for the past four to five months. It’s not easy to put the brush down for so long, but I do believe it’s gonna be worth it!
by admin | Sep 4, 2010 | Uncategorized
Today my husband and I (kids are visiting with grandparents this weekend) decided to take a small road trip out to Shenandoah National Park and hike up to Mary’s Rock. The trail was quite rocky and it was 3.5 miles round trip. I have always been a slow walker and there was no exception on this trip. It took me about 3 hours to do the hike and, as usual, folks passed me on the way up, and on the way down. Oh well, at least I can. From Mary’s Rock you have a 360 degree view.
by admin | Sep 3, 2010 | Uncategorized
My life never seems to get boring, and this couldn’t be more true right now. As well as being an artist, I am also the president of a non-profit organization down in Arnaudville, Louisiana, Frederick l’Ecole des Arts.
In July we had a terrible blow to our organization when the building we shared with Town Market, Nunu’s Café (George Marks’s family business) caught fire and was a complete loss. Since the fire it has been amazing to see the community of people, who have come to know us collectively as “NUNU’s”, rally together and work to raise funds so we can rebuild. I recently got back from a trip down to Louisiana where our first fundraiser was held at Blue Moon Saloon and Guest House in Lafayette. What a night! Six bands donated their talent and time to help us out. George and his Mom worked tirelessly serving food they used to prepare for the café. So many volunteers stood by our side, rolling up their sleeves, doing whatever needed to be done. My hats are off to all of you, with your help we can accomplish just about anything!
You can help us in so many ways. One way is to follow this link, register and vote for the Arnaudville Experiment of which Frederick l’Ecole des Arts is a component. This Place Matters, Arnaudville Experiment=Louisiana Culture. This is a grant program through the National Trust for Historic Preservation and we can win this grant if we get the most votes.
We have a website listing our upcoming fundraisers called Phoenix Rising / Nunu’s where you can see what is going on. Everyone is welcome! If you can not attend a fundraiser, but would like to donate, you can make a donation to the organization on our secure Frederick l’Ecole website donation page : http://frederick-arts.org/donationform.html. Please also consider becoming a member of the organization.
by admin | Sep 3, 2010 | Uncategorized
My first post on my new blog. Welcome to all of you who are reading this. The name of my blog, Reflections, is about the purest way I can express how I paint.
Okay, a little about me. I’m an artist, a wife, a mom, and a pretty happy person. I live in Maryland, but my heart is in Louisiana where I grew up (in New Orleans) and went to college (in Baton Rouge at LSU). The first time I met the man who would become my husband was on a trip to Paris back in 1990. The next time was as an employee in his book store / coffee shop, Caliban’s, in Baton Rouge. Phil has been so incredibly supportive of my artistic career and has stood behind me right from the get go.
My latest series, “Echoes” is all about reflected light, and I mean, all about! This series explores the beauty of light reflected off of water. All of my work adresses the beauty of reflected light, but painting light reflecting off of a moving surface was something I had been thinking about for a long time. Back in June of 2008 I decided to take the artistic “jump off the cliff” and create images that were completely different from what I had been painting and the Echo series was born.
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| Echo XX Oil on panel36″ x 48″ |
