Mike’s exhibition “House Ghosts” opened on May 7th at the Carol Robinson Gallery in New Orleans.
That’s Carol, with Mike at the Opening…
We brought most of Mike’s new work for the show with us on our drive down, but we arrived in New Orleans with a few paintings left unfinished. Mike worked on them in the evenings, at his French easel which he set up on the kitchen table.
Go ahead, try this at home!
Carol always hangs a beautiful show, and “House Ghosts” was no exception.
There was a great turn out for the opening, and it was wonderful to catch up with friends, both old, and new.
There is some form of visual art pretty much everywhere you look in New Orleans. From huge murals on the sides of hotels, to random sculptures outside snoball shops.
There is a lot of public art throughout the city, and along the riverfront.
There are wonderful museums dedicated to art of all kinds: Classical, Contemporary, Southern, and African American. I’ve walked through the Sculpture Garden at the New Orleans Museum of Art three times. It’s always beautiful.
And there are the parts of town where galleries are concentrated like Royal St. in the French Quarter and Julia St. in the Warehouse District, both of which I told you about in Part 1.
A third area which we’ve spent a lot of time in is Magazine St. which runs from the Lower Garden District to Audubon Park. There are tons of little shops, restaurants, galleries, antique shops, and boutiques, interspersed with homes, up and down its entire length.
The Carol Robinson Gallery, where Mike shows, is on Magazine and Napoleon. We attended her “Artists of Faith” Opening and this piece titled “The Golden Boat” by Michael Yankowski was one of my favorites.
Carol represents a number of artists who work in a variety of disciplines — painting, ceramics, fine wood sculpture, jewelry and photography — and she hangs new shows all year, except possibly in the summer when things slooowww dooowwwn, alot!
Well, YOU try hanging art in 95 degrees and 100% humidity!
The first Saturday of every month is the time when new shows open. We attended the March openings on Magazine and after going to Carol’s we went to Cole Pratt Gallery which had some interesting work, badly curated and arranged (in my opinion), which just made me want to get out of there before I created a scene and started rehanging everything.
Wouldn’t it have been funny if I’d just gone for it, and had gotten arrested!
ARTIST ARRESTED FOR REHANGING EXHIBITION. SITES NOCCA “HOT EYE” TRAINING AS REASON SHOW READ AS “GIBBERISH.”
These paintings are acrylic, and you can’t tell from my photos, but they look like encaustic. Really cool.
Another place on Magazine which is less gallery (though they do have paintings) and more beautifully arranged art objects — they refer to as bohemian luxury — is AKA STELLA GRAY.
Every time I go in there I just want to move in and call it home. Of course it doesn’t hurt that there is often a sweet little French Bulldog named Poppy there to greet you!
And speaking of home, as you know by now, the Pied a Terre where we are staying is also home to Rebecca Rebouche’s atelier, The Beauty Shop. Rebecca is a painter, and her work shows up on dishes and linens and wallpaper murals for Anthropologie, but her individual paintings are also available for purchase.
With any luck, the next time we’re here and I give you a tour of the visual arts scene in New Orleans — I’ll be including our home and studio space.
We’re still settling in to our Pied a Terre in beautiful Uptown New Orleans, but with each passing day we get closer to feeling like we’re “just home.” Mike’s had one day of working remotely and I’ve started to figure out my domestic routine — cooking, laundry, dog walking — all a bit different here.
I’m also making sure I fit in a little art now and then as I’m able.
Because Mike’s been sick since our arrival we haven’t gone out as much as we will once he’s all better, but that doesn’t mean we haven’t eaten in proper NOLA style. I’ve made us red beans and rice with hot sausage twice already. Mmm hmmm.
We did go out for lunch today though — at one of our favorite places — Casamento’s on Magazine and Napoleon.
We were both in the mood for “ersters.”
The Carol Robinson Gallery, where Mike has shown his work since 1988, is just up the street from Casamento’s. We stopped in to give Carol a hug and make plans to get together soon. It’s time to pick a date for Mike’s next show, and I’m hoping she’ll have some idea of where my Tarps might fit in here in New Orleans.
Carol is having her gallery’s 35th Anniversary exhibition, and Mike’s work is hung here and there, and tucked into nooks and crannies around the gallery…
There’s always something to celebrate in this town, and for us now it’s how right it feels to settle back into the NOLA way of life and how welcoming the city is of our doing just that.
