Bright Lights, Bigger City
As a kid growing up in the small, rural town of Mamou, I had huge aspirations of starting my own business one day. At least once every couple of months, my mother and I would come to Lafayette to go…
Art
Brown Cotton
Long forgotten due to its low commercial value, brown cotton is experiencing a renaissance in popularity among those who want to rediscover the "home-made" aesthetic. Not as commercially coveted as white cotton, its cultivation has long been a family affair.…
Vulnerable Landscape
The 18th century German poet Goethe is said to have quipped, “music is liquid architecture” and “architecture is frozen music.” To South Louisiana architect and landscape artist Claude Ellender, painting is music on canvas. Born in New Orleans…
The Sacred and the Profane
On the 15-mile drive south from Houma to Chauvin, if we weren’t paying attention, we might have missed the plot of land on our right as we rode along the appropriately named Bayouside Drive. We noticed an incongruous-looking lighthouse on…
Nouvelles de villes
Win Summer in Nova Scotia Vermilion Parish The Centre acadien (historicnovascotia.ca) and the Abbeville Cultural and Historical Alliance (vermilionchamber.org) jointly announce the availability of the Russell Gaspard French Immersion Scholarship, to be awarded to Vermilion Parish high school students for…
Shades of Gray
Life in Louisiana’s Acadian parishes is colorful, yet, the internationally acclaimed Lafayette photographer Lucius Fontenot is an artist who sees timeless spiritual rhythms and beauty in the gray shadows of Louisiana’s Cajun culture. “I love how unique, beautiful, strange,…
Common Bond
Having been born from the union of a Cormier and a Prudhomme there is no question about the legitimacy of my Louisiana nature. Still, a sense of soulful belonging tended to evade me as a child and teenager. In south Louisiana,…
The Rougarou: The Wild Man of the Bayous
The legend of the werewolf, member of the pantheon of movie monsters like the Mummy, Dracula, or Dr. Frankenstein’s creature, is found across multiple eras and diverse countries. We know the basic facts: the transformation from human to wolf during…
Plus ça change:
Quo Vadis Arte? Where does the Acadiana Center for the Arts go from here? What happens to the arts when public assemblies are restricted? Where does the local art scene go? An interview with Acadiana Center of the Arts’ Executive…
L'art: Family of Man
Over the last four decades, the acclaimed Lafayette photographer Philip Gould has traveled the cultural and spiritual byways of South Louisiana with his camera and imagination in search for what the Swiss-born American photographer Robert Frank described as “the humanity…
Musical Magic
Festivals Acadiens et Créoles is usually the highlight of the region’s fall festival season. As both temperatures and the likelihood of hurricanes drop, lovers of Cajun and creole music flock from around the world to Girard Park in Lafayette. Things…
Prayerful Painting
The Bible tells us the prayer “of a righteous man is powerful and effective.” Now witness “soulful impressions” and prayerful paintings by St. Martinville artist Dennis Paul Williams, a righteous man. The Louisiana music world knows Williams as the guitarist…
Organized Chaos
John Muir, the famed Scottish-American naturalist and “Father of the National Parks,” once wrote that only in the wilderness could he find his soul. Like Muir, artist Bill Iles turns to the swamps and forests of Southwest Louisiana as a…
L'Art: Artistic Impressions
According to novelist Thomas Wolfe, “You can’t go home again.” Don’t tell that to Lake Charles artist Kevin Lawrence Leveque. After 32 years away, he not only returned home again to Lake Charles, but he also found his art there…
In Other News
Look to the Sky Opelousas St. Landry Airport is hosting a Summer “Fly In” and Vintage War Bird Expo (June 26-28) featuring a famous WWII B-17 bomber along with other vintage warbirds to honor veterans and introduce the community to…
Les Personnes: A Collective Effort
In the spirit of complete transparency, Arnaudville artist and social sculptor George Marks feels it’s prudent to point out that this — a shining example of creative placemaking done right — wasn’t exactly what he had in mind back in…
Lettres d'amour / Lost and Found
By Herbert J. Wilt I was reared by my grandparents in Breaux Bridge in St. Martin Parish. It was there I heard, on a daily basis, the Kréyòl language spoken by all who came to visit. Throughout my childhood, the…
L'art: Worth a Thousand Words
Worth a Thousand Words Lake Charles photographer Tim Fontenot focuses his lens on South Louisiana’s landscape of visual poetry by john r. kemp portrait by Romero & Romero As a 19th-century English poet once said, “Art is man’s nature; nature…
La Maison: Art House
Downsizing is daunting, especially after living in the same home for 30 years. Combine that with a homeowner whose lifelong passion includes art and collectibles, and the last thing you might expect is for her to describe the entire process…
Lettres d'amour: Uncovering History
After retiring from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette in 2013 as Dean of the then-College of General Studies and Professor of Communicative Disorders, I assumed that my retirement years would be a period of extended leisure and relaxation. Instead,…
Les artistes: Energy All Her Own
Familiar scenes of the industrial heartbeat of South Louisiana play out in unexpected colors and tones, as artist Hannah Smith Mason — whose life has always been tied to the energy sector — reimagines the instantly recognizable with each impressionist…
Lettres d'Amour
Definitely an acquired taste. That’s the inescapable conclusion of one who didn’t grow up here but has dwelt here for 30 years, gradually transitioning from outsider to insider. Ironically, I was born in Baton Rouge, in the very hospital where…
Les artistes: Lightbulb Moment
Now that the tables have turned, and the spotlight beams down on the man who made his mark pointing it at others so that they may shine, Lafayette transplant Brian Schneider punts on the notion of calling himself an artist…even…
En Français, s’il vous plaît: Spanish Moss
It is difficult to imagine a Southern Gothic novel without a single reference to a solitary oak tree covered with Spanish moss. This image has become almost a banality, but one that represents an essential truth. As much as the…
Lettres d'amour: Old Songs and Old Cypress
I’m a folklorist by training, and explaining what that means can be tricky. One way to say it that folklorists often deal with lost things. The hard truth is that, as society evolves, things fall by the wayside, often beautiful…
