I’ve mentioned Chris’s gallery and her work several times in my blog, so you will remember that in addition to her gorgeous embroideries and appliqués being among my very most favorite artwork in New Orleans, Chris is also the mama of Noah Antieau whose gallery Red Truck is one of my very most favorite galleries in New Orleans. It’s a small world, y’all.
Though we’ve visited the Antieau Gallery many times, the Opening last night was the first time that Chris herself was there at the same time that we were. I was over the moon, and a little bit star-struck to be able to actually meet her and talk with her about her work, and my work — I gave her a copy of my Tarpestry book which she seemed to like very much.
Of course it never hurts to have Lula “Ice Breaker” Chambers with me on these adventures!
An entire week of “normal” life in New Orleans has already been gobbled up.
Kinda like the oysters I enjoyed at Casamentos on Saturday.
It took no time at all falling back into our NOLA routine — meaning getting back to eating all that great food we’ve been missing for the past year.
We’ve had muffalettas from Central Grocery.
And char grilled oysters (in addition to those raw bad boys pictured above) at Casamentos.
And yesterday for Easter we went to the Napoleon House for Pimm’s Cups and Reuben Sandwiches. According to Joy, New Orleans actually makes some crazy good Reuben’s and we intend to taste test as many as humanly possible.
(We sat in the two red chairs at the right end of the long table in that picture.)
Now that you know we aren’t starving you’re probably interested in what’s been happening art-wise.
Plenty.
Mike’s “Annunciation” painting was featured in an exhibition and concert on Maundy Thursday at the Marigny Opera House.
(That’s his “Annunciation” on the far right. By the way, it has already sold!)
We’ve been by the Carol Robbinson Gallery, where Mike will have his solo show in May, and we’ve already visited several of our (other) favorite galleries, and I have had one of those crazy-there-IS-a-God-because-I’ve-just-been-slapped-up-side-the-head-by-the-Universe moments related to my most favorite gallery in New Orleans, the Red Truck Gallery.
You may remember that last year in my quest to find a gallery in New Orleans which would show my tarpestries, I was directed to Red Truck. I won’t bore you with all the details, but it turned into (I thought at the time) a dead end as I was never able to connect with Noah Antieau, the Red Truck big guy.
So we returned to Boise, only slightly dejected, and I went into Tarpestry Overdrive, had my solo show, etc., etc., and have had so much new work generated by my Boise opportunities that I decided this trip to New Orleans would be about getting rested and reinvigorated and ready to jump back into another session of Overdrive in 2016. To be more specific, I didn’t bring any of my tarpestries with me this time because I wasn’t planning on shopping them around. You know that saying — We make plans, and God laughs? Yep.
Meanwhile Red Truck was featured in the latest issue of JUXTZPOZ(an art magazine we subscribe to), and this is important because Mike was wearing his JUXTAPOZ t-shirt as he and I were walking through the French Quarter, and this really tall man points at Mike’s t-shirt and says “JUXTAPOZ is a great magazine. They just did a feature on my gallery!” And Mike says “Oh yeah? What’s the name of your gallery?” And tall man says “Red Truck.” Yep. The tall man was Noah Antieau.
Then Mike says (for my benefit of course, being a bit of a button pusher) “So, if someone wanted to get their work into your gallery what would they need to do?” And Noah starts to say the usual stuff we’ve all heard a hundred times (knowing Noah’s been asked that question a Zillion times) and then Mike says, pointing at me, “She already did that!” Where upon I rush in to introduce myself and begin to describe my tarpestries, and Noah says “Oh my god, I love your work, and I remember you contacting me — but literally right at that time I fell through the cracks because I was headed back to San Francisco, where I spend most of my time now.”
So then, because at this point everything was moving in that slow motion that happens when you need to have all your wits about you — like when your car has just plunged off the bridge and the river is rushing up at you — I said, with just a hint of petulance “So? What am I supposed to do now?”
And Noah says “If you’re interested in Red Truck, talk to Gabe. If you’re interested in San Fransciso, talk to me. But if you want to show your work in New Orleans, Gabe’s the big guy.” And then, as swiftly as he had appeared, he disappeared again.
