Prospect 1

On my flight down to New Orleans on Friday, I just happened to read this review in the New Yorker about Prospect 1, a Biennial Exhibition in New Orleans. (Here's another great review.) My mom's friend who would be with her when she picked me up at the airport wanted to go down to the Ninth Ward anyway, so I convinced them to check out some of the new Prospect 1 installations while we were in the neighborhood. At the Hefler Warehouse (CBD), we picked up our admission cards and saw a few exhibits there:

Angel Delgado, "Water Up the Neck" (Con el agua al cuello)

Takashi Horisaki's casting of a Ninth Ward house, "Social Dress New Orleans":

Check out this Times-Picayune article for a little background on his project.

Then we headed to the Lower Ninth. Here are some installations there: Battle Ground Baptist Church, site of the "Diamond Gym" by Nari Ward.


The Arc by Mark Bradford:
"Mrs. Sarah's House" by Wangechi Mutu:

Me with Keith Calhoun, resident Ninth Ward photographer.

Keith and his wife Chandra have documented Ninth Ward and New Orleans life for decades. Their display had one side of the shotgun duplex with images ruined by Katrina, the other side had images that had survived. Check out their website here. Keith has a special interest in turning young kids on to art, and he wanted me to come down to talk about prison life (and how to avoid it). They had some amazing shots (and access) at Angola (not to mention all the rest), which I would have loved to purchase. But with patrons like Brad & Angelina, they weren't exactly in my budget!

M Belle, if you make it down to NOLA before January 18th, you will want to check this out!!

Angela Russell, violin

Angela Russell, violin
Originally uploaded by Madeline & Ryosuke

I went to a baroque music concert in St. Mark's tonight and was pleasantly surprised to find that Angela Russell was one of the violinists in the Baroque Artists of Shreveport group! Turns out she also recently moved back to The Shreve! The concert was super lovely; the un-amplified sound in the cathedral was just what the doctor ordered.

One of the things I love about my job...

On the road...
Originally uploaded by Madeline & Ryosuke

is the traveling through the rural areas of Louisiana and Arkansas. Today I drove to Farmersville, Louisiana which is about a half hour north of Ruston. Right before I hit the town the thick forrest opened to a large, open lake dotted with afternoon fishermen. A mile down the road on the right there was a huge orchard on a slight hill which gave me a full view of the rows of picked over trees. Lovely! The rough little town was jammed with farm stands. Their hand-painted signs gave me an idea of what the recent crops are: pecans! sweet potatoes! Only a few people still have purple hull peas but the reals jewels of this season are the Louisiana satsuma oranges. There's also lots of venison around if you know the right people (it's illegal to sell hunted venison). Louisiana produces!

Grateful & Proud

Grateful

Proud

Exhilarated

Moved

Hopeful

Warm

Elated...

for the moment that remains, even after yesterday's fake tattoo fades:-)

Yes We Can

Yes We Can
Originally uploaded by Madeline & Ryosuke

elated, excited, relieved, giddy, hopeful, free
How are y'all feeling?

Ya Vote!