How we Perceive what we See.

 

 The Devastation is so complete and horrible like a bomb went off.  People hope to get right back to their lives, but so much has to be done because so much was effected. The infrastructure, jobs, electricity, the government governing systems...all must be resurrected.  
You might think this is the Jersey Shore, but these are photo's from New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina!  They don't look too different do they.  Nature is a tremendous master and global warming is here.  It is time we all speak the truth and say this is our new reality..these massive storms and earth changes.  
New Orleans Artists were on the fore front of bringing the city back, from art projects using the refuse, to musicians playing on street corners just to help people cope.  I hope New Jersey and New York can find the same creative minds of artists to help them cope and recover.  You are in our thoughts East Coast USA! 

 NEW ORLEANS ON SITE RABBIT'S MOON     STUDIO JOURNAL

During our stay here in the Big Easy we are trying to chronicle as much about the area as we can for you.  They one thing about a new environment for artist is that you have new eyes, nothing is common place.  In your own world one becomes used to seeing things and forgets to look closely at times.  When ever an artist is in a new environment, it is like you have fresh eyes, you see every thing anew.  It is a like a shot of adrenaline, hundreds of new images coming at you and every thing seems new..because it is to you.  We were coming out of Drago's Restaurant (a wonderful seafood restaurant) and across the parking lot these electric lines outside a building.  The white on white, the shapes forming an abstract composition of alien tentacle like soldiers, and the lines almost in motion..like wind blown...still frozen in motion from Katrina and the wake of destruction it left. The straight lined contrast of the bricks against the curved caps of current connectors makes for an interesting juxtaposition.
These make me think of Louise Nevelson and her mono toned collages in New York.  See what you think.  I will include some of Nevelson's work for you to compare.
I am not sure yet how I will use these photo's in my work, or just let the work be the photo...but I seem to want to do more, so we shall see where it leads. The more i look at them, the more they speak to me and seem to want to say more!  

STUDIES IN LINE, SHAPE AND TEXTURE 

Metairie Electric Lines         photo by elizabeth gordon  

Metarie  Electric Lines          photo by elizabeth gordon

Louise Nevelson                            from google image

from google image

GIVE YOURSELF A TREAT, GO TO A NEW AREA, A NEW ENVIRONMENT, TAKE A CAMERA OR SKETCH BOOK...AND THEN SIT BACK AND WAIT..IT WILL BE IMAGE ON IMAGE, NEW SMELLS, NEW SOUNDS, AND NEW IMAGES.  I PROMISE YOU IT IS A TREAT FOR THE ARTISTS'  SOUL.

This could be any town USA on a summers day. It looks peaceful and joyful. But you should know more about this picture and its story. It is also what inspires me to be an artist and to take this picture. This is Metairie, a suburb of New Orleans. The picture was taken this year, 2011, on a street that was devastated by hurricane Katrina and the floods that followed. Every house on this block was damaged, giant hundred year old oak trees felled, water pouring into each house. In the month and year that followed, some left never to return, others came back and rebuilt. This is one that was rebuilt while the owner lived in a government trailer and lived in a city that looked like a nuclear bomb had hit it. Now New Orleans is coming back and those that stayed and survived are stronger. So this picture is not any town, USA, it is the story of resilience of the human spirit.