I mention New Orleans a good bit in my blog because I have friends and family that I go to see often there. I have seen New Orleans before and after Hurricane Katrina devastated a large portion of the city. Tv coverage could not convey the total expanse of the destruction, street after street, block after block and neighborhood after neighborhood. It looked as if an atomic bomb had gone off. I remember flying in to the city at night not long after Katrina wondering where all the lights were and then it dawned on me how much of the city was gone. People are tough inNew Orleans and it is a city that is far too unique to lose. Jazz and blues are back, the wonderful restaurants in the French Quarter have reopened and the city is coming back, but it has taken much longer than people thought. The struggles were tougher than anyone imagined. I admire New Orleans and the people. They love their city and their culture and they did not give up.
In my many visits to New Orleans through the years I have become enamored with the Outsider Art that I have seen on the streets, in galleries, cafes, and museums. The Hard Rock Cafe in New Orleans has a wonderful collection and the Ogden Museum of Southern Art also carries outsider artists. I love the combination of words with image, wood with metal, and the honest naive imagery. It gives all people access to art and expression who have not had art training. I love the pure honest approach to this art, it is expression at its most basic form....no pretense....it is what it is.
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