Pandemic Diaries - Year 4 - New Orleans - Art!

28 April 2024

 

I spent some of the coldest weeks in New Orleans crocheting scarves for people who might need them.  We encountered record lows, or at least record lows in recent years.  Homes in this area aren't built for below freezing temperatures, and we were wearing double layers of clothing with the heat on.  I could only imagine how it would be living in one of the many tent encampments we saw.  There is a huge housing shortage in many parts of the US, so some indigent people have ended up living in tents.  NOT good when the temperature hits 19º F!!!

 

The scarves ranged in color from neutral greys and browns, to cheerful pinks and oranges.  Lots of blues, aquas, greens.  Just because someone is homeless doesn't mean they need ugly scarves, right?

 

I also joined the local UrbanSketchers group.  For people who haven't heard of UrbanSketchers, this is a worldwide movement to create art in urban spaces, and show others the beauty in the world's cities, towns, villages.  Life isn't all pastoral vistas.  And even within the largest cities, there are green spaces.  

 

So UrbanSketchers meet up, usually once a month, and people go off to draw, paint, whatever.  Then the artists come back together to admire each other's work.  We also post our work at the group Facebook page if there is one, as well as on our personal UrbanSketchers page or blog.  That's it, just artists doing their creating and putting the images in a public place.

 

The first meetup I attended was outside a gorgeous old home, now used by the Women's Guild of the New Orleans Opera.  We couldn't go in, but most people brought chairs and sat around the building.  Some drew detailed architectural renderings, some more casual sketches of the beautiful and stately house full of porches and turrets.

 

But it was a somewhat foggy and mysterious morning.  We were in the Garden District, full of huge old live oak trees with overhanging branches creating partial tunnels out of the streets.  I stood at the corner and sketched two trees framing a smaller house, surrounded by the ubiquitous wrought iron fence.  I tried to capture the calm and somewhat mystical feeling of the morning in my sketch.  True to form, I was the sole person who did not draw the building at which we met.  I guess I somehow missed that part of the memo!

My second meet up, in April, was at a place called The Fly.  It's also known as the Audubon Riverview Park, which better describes it.  This is a large park along the Mississippi, south of Audubon Park, built on top of the levee.  There are little pavilions, benches along a path, plenty of parking, even restrooms.  It's a great place to sketch.

I said hi to my artist friend, and wandered down to the far end from the group.  There was a gangway leading to a floating dock, and some kind of lookout structure.  But what I really liked were the cormorants stretched out along the top tier, drying off in the sunshine, and watching
the river float by.

I was so busy painting my little individual cormorants, I somehow missed the time for the meet up.  My friend came by to let me know everyone else had left.  Yeah, I may not be cut out for group activities.  But I really like the sunlight and shadows on the white tower, the dark cormorants mere silhouettes against the muddy river, and the industrial activity just a blur on the opposite shore.  I think this painting really works.  (Just a note - I used the tiny pocket-sized paint kit I bought in Italy two years ago - all those colors from just six colors of paint!)

My artist friend and I went to the New Orleans Museum of Art, NOMA, up at City Park.  There was an exhibit of artwork by Wangechi Mutu, a Kenyan-American artist.  I had seen some of her work at the New Museum in New York City last May, but that was more of a quick overview.  It was great to see more of her work and have time to really look at all the intricate details, as well as reading the information placards.

These are huge and heavy sculptures, cast metal and enameled.  Each must weigh at least a ton if not more.  I would guess cranes or pulleys were used to move each piece - and one semi trailer per sculpture!  Just moving these sculptures from place to place would need the logistics and tactics of engineers as well as art curators!

 

My favorites are her sculptures, three of which were in the museum's extensive sculpture gardens.  I think "Crocodylus" is my favorite, a fierce warrior woman riding on the back of the crocodile, and sort of merging into the crocodile, becoming one.  The other two are "The Seated III" and "In Two Canoe."

Mutu's humans are often like that, part human, part animal or plant or object.  Maybe a combination of all of those.  Some of her artwork seems like Native American legends, that we humans are merely part of the animal and plant kingdom, just one part of the entire world, working together symbiotically.  Or maybe humans need to embrace that part of ourselves.  I don't know.  But her artwork definitely makes us THINK.  And think BIG THOUGHTS.  Those big important philosophical issues dating back to Plato and Socrates, the meaning of life, the meaning of self.

Or maybe that's just how I relate to her artwork and sculpture.

I had three other trips to the museum/sculpture gardens - once with my sister-in-law, once with my sister and my niece, and one last time with my nephew and another niece.  Lots of family visits.  And lots of interesting artwork.

Some that caught my attention: 

"History of the Conquest" by Hank Willis Thomas.  I love the whimsical nature of the person riding a snail!

"Mississippi Meanders" by Elyn Zimmerman - this is a glass bridge across one of the various streams or creeks that wanders through the sculpture gardens.  Really, people walk across this beautiful glass bridge!

 

 

 

 

"Mirror Labyrinth" by Jeppe Hein is a series of mirrored planks standing upright, set in a spiralling pattern.  Sort of Stonehenge with mirrors or something!  Fun to walk into - and somehow, I came out at a different place than where I entered.  There may have been three entrance/exit spots, I don't know.  (I could be really bad and say it was all done with smoke and mirrors, but that's too obvious.)

 

 

 

 

"Alu Truss Star" by Frank Stella is deceptively simple.  From one view, it looks like a flat six-pointed star.  Take a few steps left or right, it becomes an eight-pointed star.  Walk a bit further, it changes from two- to three-dimensional.  It was almost like one of those folded paper fortune things we made as children, folding in and out of itself in a variety of directions.

"Viñales (Mayombe Mississippi)" by Teresita Fernandez is a huge mosaic mural.  HUGE.  The size given is 182" x 624", or 15.17 feet high by 52 feet long.  That's roughly 5 yards or meters high, and just over 17 yards or meets long.  That's 780 square feet, or 85 square meters.  HUGE!  The tiles are just a bit over 1" square, each one made of ceramic and glazed to whatever color the artist needed for that particular part of the mosaic.  I have no idea if the artist made the tiles herself, or if she had an entire atelier of assistants working with her.  I just know this magnificent mural was a major undertaking!  You can see more photos and read about this mural here:  https://mosaika.com/project/teresita-fernandez-vinales-mayombe-mississippi-en/

There are other sculptures, but my camera battery died.  Yaacov Agam.  Isamu Noguchi.  Frank Stella.  Frank Gehry.  Pierre-Auguste Renoir.  Auguste Rodin.  Augustus Saint-Gaudens.  (Makes you wonder about all these sculptors named Auguste or Augustus, doesn't it?)  Claes Oldenburg.  Robert Indiana.  Henry Moore.  Deborah Butterworth.  George Rickey.

 

I kept looking for an Andy Goldsworthy, he's best known for his sculptures that merge into the landscape, but I didn't see any.

Artist heaven.  The sculpture gardens are free, and are open even on Mondays, when the museum is closed.  Absolutely worth a visit!