Artist & Advocate: Brandon Ballengée

An artist and scientist, Brandon Ballengée, uses his unique background to highlight the biodiversity of Louisiana’s wetland ecosystems.

Q:  Please describe your work and the medium/media you use. Why do you make this type of art? 

A:  My work is inspired by biodiversity and ecosystems, as well as the loss of both. The medium, process, and materials are driven by the underlying idea of what I am trying to convey. The visual art itself is made from diverse mediums including large-scale light sculptures to spotlight arthropod diversity along with trans-species happenings, living plants and animals displaced in temporary enclosures to highlight local flora and fauna, large-scale high-resolution scanner photographs, monumental installations created from preserved marine life, depictions of species ‘cut’ from history because of extinction and framed to frame their absence, and many others.  

Q:  What is most striking or inspirational to you about the wetland landscape?   

A:  The diversity of life in wetlands, their variety and adaptations. Also, the relationships between species and their environments. What we can learn from these species and ecosystems.

Q:  In what ways has the Louisiana wetland landscape changed in your lifetime? 

A: Since my time on this planet, Louisiana has lost over 2000 square miles of wetlands, and at least 7 species of endemic Gulf of Mexico fishes (those found nowhere else in the world) have not been reported and are currently missing. The 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster remains the largest oil spill in modern history and the MC20/ Taylor spill has continued leaking crude into the Gulf since 2004.  More so, since I have been alive we have lost over 40% of the global population of amphibians and upwards of 70% of all wildlife. These environmental challenges are both local and global in scale and often very complex. To face this milieu of issues, we need the creativity of artists, scientists and those focused on other disciplines combined to creatively address such challenges we and other species currently face.

Q: Why is it important to you to create art about Louisiana wetlands? 

A:  To inspire others to appreciate and protect them! Louisiana is a special biologically rich part of our world! Louisiana wetlands and the Gulf of Mexico are our “Amazon rainforest” for us in North America. We should be proud of these natural resources and work hard to protect them for future generations!

Q:  In your opinion why is coastal restoration in Louisiana is important? For folks out of state, why is  Louisiana’s coastal restoration work important for the nation? 

A: We in South Louisiana are the Bellwether for climate change. If we adapt and survive there is hope for communities around the world. As bleak as many projections are, we should still have hope because restoration works, remediation works, conservation works. All of these scientific tools can and will help many of our coastal communities adapt. We need our collective will to bring these solutions to reality. Art is a powerful way to reach people and I believe it will be an important tool helping to lead us to adaptation.

Q: How does your art challenge existing barriers and assumptions about our environmental crisis? 

A: I strive to inspire discussion and actions toward conservation. Often people feel that environmental problems are too large and too widespread for individuals to make a difference. This is absolutely not the case. All of our individual actions every day have an influence on ecosystems and biodiversity: what we chose to eat; how we live; where we live; how we travel; if we own land, what to do with it; how we discuss these ideas with others; and on an on.  

We are part of a larger living community and can individually and collectively make large differences. In the words of Margaret Mead, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”  

Following this concept, my family (my wife Aurore Ballengée and our two children Victor and Lily) and I have started the Atelier de la Nature project. Six years ago we began to transform heavily farmed land in south Louisiana (between Arnaudville and Cecilia) into a nature reserve and eco-campus. By sculpting the lands with specialized native species (helping to break-down pesticide residue and deter erosion), and are working to reestablish ‘Cajun’ prairie (ecosystems found here prior to modernity), planted over 1000 regional native trees (to regrow a forest), and created pollinator habitats from native hibiscus, swamp milkweed, and many more regional plants (to aid declining butterflies, like the Monarch which is in on the verge of endangered, native bees and others. 

The Atelier de la Nature project has already yielded results in the ecological sense with many dozens of species of birds and mammals returning, many species of amphibians and reptiles currently occupying the property, countless insects, all coming back to once barren land. In the human communal sense, hundreds of youth have helped with restoration of the lands or participated in our programs. As climate continues to change and species disappear, some of us, many of us will slow down and even halt this through creative solutions. Life will persist if we let it. Life will thrive if we give it a means. 

Q:  Where can people view your work (displayed in galleries or links to websites)? 

A: Now through January 8, The Acadiana Center for the Arts in Lafayette has a large scale exhibition of my works.  This large-scale exhibition, curated by Jaik Faulk, showcases 10 years of my work related to the environmental crisis in the Gulf of Mexico, from Collapse (2012) to, for the first time, my most recent series of Crude Oil Paintings (2020-21) and new works related to the ongoing MC20/Taylor oil spill, as well as a selection of works from the series The Frameworks of Absence (2006-Ongoing), my new series VII (2021), and the outdoor light sculpture Love Motel for Insect: Monarch Variation (2021).

The Age of Loneliness at the Acadiana Center for the Arts

We welcome visitors to the Atelier de la Nature year around. Please contact us for an appointment and list of current programs.

Studio Website

Contact Info

You can also join me for a “Fantastic Fishes Workshop and Tour of the Royal D. Suttkus Fish Collection,” an art-science program on fish species diversity, natural history and learn to draw fish! These workshops will take place at the Tulane University’s Royal D. Suttkus Fish Collection (the largest collection of preserved fishes on the planet!) in Belle Chasse and happen monthly between November 2021 through January 2023.

Email for Registration

Artist & Advocate: Dominic & Nadia Gill, Encompass Films

Dominic Gill is a former environmental consultant who formed Encompass Films with his producing partner Nadia Gill in 2011 who created a 5-part digital mini-series that looks at what it is like to confront the reality of Louisiana’s coastal crisis today.

Q:  Please describe your work and the medium/media you use. Why do you make this type of art? 

A:  We are documentary filmmakers that make both short-form and feature-length documentary films. It is an exciting area to work in, with the appetite for documentary content being larger than ever before. Documenting real life, and particularly where the natural world and humanity meet, has always interested me, and with today’s camera technology, the way in which we can capture these stories can be every bit as compelling as narrative films. 

Q:  What is most striking or inspirational to you about the wetland landscape?   

A:    The wetland landscape is unique and inspiring to me particularly because it hides in plain sight. The incredible patchwork of water, marsh, sand bars, and swamp all teeming with life is hidden behind grass curtains to all except those that can fly above it and see the maize of diversity they contain. 

Q:  In what ways has the Louisiana wetland landscape changed in your lifetime? 

A:  While I am not native to Louisiana, I have even in our short months working in the region seen marked change, whether that be on a micro level, seeing the edges of marshes falling away into increasingly saline waters, or macro, as storm such as Ida have all but destroyed the towns of those we have become close with through the work we’ve done. 

Q: Why is it important to you to create art about Louisiana wetlands? 

A:  The Louisiana wetlands have no overlook, like Yosemite or the Tetons. They don’t benefit from having their natural beauty on show for all to see. This is why we must work to bring these sights, no less awe-inspiring than the granite domes of the Sierra or the iridescent waters of Lake Tahoe,  to the public. People love what they know, and protect what they love.

Q:  In your opinion why is coastal restoration in Louisiana is important? For folks out of state, why is  Louisiana’s coastal restoration work important for the nation? 

A:  Louisiana’s coast is rich with life. It is a crucial breeding and migratory habitat for marine life as well as birds. This alone is reason enough to protect this land and water. However, for those with a more industrial bent, The Mississippi Delta is one of the busiest shipping terminals in the world, and a major artery for US commerce, including the extractive but still necessary oil and gas industry. As the wetlands disappear, the threat that storms pose to the Mississippi’s levees grows dramatically, and there may come a point if we don’t act when breaches to these levees will cripple the country’s economy.

Q: How does your art challenge existing barriers and assumptions about our environmental crisis? 

A: We chose to tell the stories of a selection of people that live and breathe Louisiana’s wetlands, people that are at the forefront of this dynamic and changing ecosystem. Many of these people need the wetlands to survive, but they also need in some cases the economic engine of some of the extractive industries that are degrading the land and water around them. Solutions are rarely as simple in cases like this as those observing from afar may choose to believe.

Q:  Where can people view your work (displayed in galleries or links to websites)? 

Last Call For the Bayou

YouTube

Encompass Films

article by restore the Mississippi river delta

Artist & Advocate: Lauren Hémard

Lauren Hémard is a New Orleans-based Artist & Naturalist whose creations are often inspired by the wetlands landscape.

Q:  Please describe your work and the medium/media you use. Why do you make this type of art? 

A:  I am best described as a multimedia artist, not as much for using multiple mediums in each work, but for the constant rotation between mediums. I’m always hovering through and back around to painting and illustrating, photography, textile art, printmaking, song and digital collage.  

Nature, the elements, spirit and dreams … these have always been inspiration, and I look to the connectedness of nature for every answer, every question the universe poses. 

I like to think of my imagery as a blend of the natural world and dreamscape. It’s a place where I long for us to exist. Being idealistic about our issues doesn’t help save the earth, but imagining ourselves in that interconnected plane with nature and humanity can help us visualize peace on this planet. Visualization is a big step toward a goal.

Q:  What is most striking or inspirational to you about the wetland landscape?   

A:  There are countless reasons the wetlands inspire me. They surrounded the story of growing up here, familiar, comforting, just part of it all. Then I grew and learned so much about them, the role they play in the environment and in countless aspects of our local culture. They were once described to me as “Floating Prairies” and I found that to be the most intriguing description.  

Also, experiencing loss throughout life has kept me searching for things in nature to remind me that change is a part of living. The wetlands have become one of those symbols for me, that things change, special things can be ephemeral, and that we should protect these things at all costs while we still have them. 

Q:  In what ways has the Louisiana wetland landscape changed in your lifetime? 

A:  Having grown up in New Orleans, I’ve been able to have a close view of the changes in the surrounding areas. You hear about the loss all the time but if you stayed only inside the city, or lived elsewhere you might not notice it in your day to day. Driving down to Grand Isle for instance, there’s so much more water than there used to be. The big Gulf is on our doorstep. You can feel the effect from the big storms that pass through. The continuous strength and speed of Ida for example put on loud display that the buffer had been severely diminished.

Q: Why is it important to you to create art about Louisiana wetlands? 

A:  For one, it’s a place that I know and feel comfortable with expressing myself through, since it’s the visual language of home. I think it’s important to tell the stories of your home so that people who visit or want to learn about it can understand the humanity and unique landscape of wherever you are, and how those intertwine, especially down here.

Q:  In your opinion why is coastal restoration in Louisiana is important? For folks out of state, why is  Louisiana’s coastal restoration work important for the nation? 

A: Restoration is important because we still want to be here! And the communities closest to the bottom of the “Boot” are the most vulnerable. There are irreplaceable lives at stake, and they hold irreplaceable cultural knowledge and history regarding our most precious and precarious areas. The indigenous tribes of our state, the French speakers, the Vietnamese communities, the fishing heritage, countless stories and working knowledge of their home, the animals, the plants, the healing drive down to the coast through the marshlands, the places on the map that are disappearing before our eyes… for these reasons and for so many other indefinable ones, it is important.  

Q: How does your art challenge existing barriers and assumptions about our environmental crisis? 

A: My hope is that people come to no longer see Humanity and Nature as separate entities. There is no separating Us from It All, even separating Ourselves from Each Other. The rest could fall into place, the more people share that viewpoint.

Q:  Where can people view your work (displayed in galleries or links to websites)? 

Lola From Nola

@lola_From_nola

• 

• 

• 

• 

Artist & Advocate: Neka Mire

Neka Mire is a Chitimacha artist who has been beading for almost 20 years.

Q:  Please describe your work and the medium/media you use. Why do you make this type of art? 

A:  I am a Chitimacha weaver and beader.  Although I primarily focus on rivercane basketry and beading, I also have begun exploring a few styles of fiber weaving within recent years because I enjoy learning about modern and historical textile traditions and because I enjoy weaving in general. 

I began beading when I was a student at Chitimacha Tribal School in 1993 or ‘94, and I immediately fell in love with all the beautiful bead colors, the infinite possibilities of design, and the creative process.  I also loved learning to bead along with my friends and family members, and I still do.   

Many of my beading designs are based on our traditional basketry designs.  As a result, I was already familiar with a few basket patterns when I began weaving rivercane baskets in 2017.  Weaving our traditional basketry is very special to me because it is a part of who I am as a Chitimacha person.  When I weave, I feel more connected to myself, the landscape; my family; my community; past, present, and future weavers; and our traditions.   

Q:  What is most striking or inspirational to you about the wetland landscape?   

A:  It’s hard for me to say what is most inspirational because there are so many attributes of the wetlands that I find striking and inspirational.  My color choices for beadwork and yarn work are often inspired by the beauty of Louisiana’s wetland landscape.  Our traditional basket designs are depictions of the natural environment as well. 

Q:  In what ways has the Louisiana wetland landscape changed in your lifetime? 

A:  I’ve seen a lot of older trees die during my lifetime while it seems that many young trees do not have the chance to grow old.  Floods seem to happen more frequently now than in the past, and there are places on our coastline now underwater that weren’t under water just a few years ago.  On the other hand, rivercane is more plentiful and therefore more accessible to me now than it was 20-30 years ago because of rivercane restoration. 

Q: Why is it important to you to create art about Louisiana wetlands? 

A:  I don’t necessarily think of myself as creating art about the Louisiana wetlands.  Rather, I am creating art with and for the wetlands.  Each basket is the result of many years of caring for the rivercane plants and the land upon which they grow, and each basket is the result of a collaboration between myself, my community, the land, and the living rivercane plants.  The rivercane and the land have much more of a final say in how the basket turns out than I ever will, and caring for the plants and cane patch are of utmost importance to the weaving process.  This perspective is important to me because if I do not harvest, prepare, and weave with careful consideration for the plants and the cane patch, then the cane will diminish and become less accessible to weavers.   

In addition, many of my beading and jewelry materials were given to me by friends and family members, and I try to incorporate those materials in my work as much as possible, especially locally sourced materials.  For example, the alligator garfish scales I use in my signature earrings came from a fish that was caught locally by a lifelong friend and family member who then prepared the scales and gave them to me.  It’s important that I include materials from my friends, family, and community because they have encouraged and supported me every step of the way since I first began creating. 

• 

  Beaded alligator garfish scale earrings.

• 

  Split loom beaded necklace & matching barrette with Bear’s Earring basket pattern & bear paw design

• 

  Yarn weaving using finger weaving, inkle loom weaving, and tablet weaving techniques

 
Q:  In your opinion why is coastal restoration in Louisiana is important? For folks out of state, why is  Louisiana’s coastal restoration work important for the nation? 

A: I think coastal restoration work is important to our state and the nation because I believe that human beings have a responsibility to the land, all its inhabitants, each other, and the generations that come after us.  All life depends on the environment, and I think it is important to honor that connection by caring for the natural landscape around us.  I also think it is important to support, uphold, and continue a legacy of environmental stewardship for future generations. 

Q: How does your art challenge existing barriers and assumptions about our environmental crisis? 

A:  One may look at a basket and only think about the finished piece, but weaving is actually the “fastest” step even though it too can take a long time.  The truth is it takes many years of growth and care before the cane can be harvested and many weeks or months of preparation before harvested cane is ready for weaving.  It also takes many years of practice to master the techniques.  I still have a great deal more learning to do, but early in my weaving journey I learned that our traditional basketry is much more than simply weaving.  It is an entire system of education that is inextricably linked to the health and well-being of the environment in which the cane grows.  Continuation of our basketry traditions also challenges the common assumption that traditional art forms and environmental knowledge are relevant in a mainly historical context. While I think history is important, I also think it is important to acknowledge traditional art forms as a necessary component of the larger, multi-faceted conversations currently taking place about the environmental crises that affect us all. 

Q:  Where can people view your work (displayed in galleries or links to websites)? 

Four Trees Design Co.

Four Trees Design Co. Instagram

Chitimacha Tribal museum

Q: Is there anything else that you’d like to tell us about yourself or your work?

A: Thank you for the invitation and the honor of participating as a highlighted artist for the 2021 CWPPRA Dedication Ceremony.  I express my deepest admiration and gratitude to CWPPRA and to everyone who contributes to protecting and restoring the coastal wetlands of Louisiana.  Last, I would like to encourage and invite everyone who loves our state’s beautiful wetlands to join us as we work toward this common goal.

Artist & Advocate: Mona Lisa Saloy

Mona Lisa Saloy is an author, folklorist, educator, and scholar, and she was recently named the 2021-2023 Louisiana Poet Laureate.

Q:  Please describe your work and the medium/media you use. Why do you make this type of art? 

A:  As an author, I write in multiple genres from essays to plays and screenplays, but I’m more known as a poet, the form in which I’ve been published over the longest time. I write to honor my ancestors—familial + otherwise, their heart-wrenching while encouraging proverbs and tales—and my community: I write to speak for those who can’t or don’t tell their stories.

Q:  What is most striking or inspirational to you about the wetland landscape?   

A:  The wetland landscape is purely southern beauty, floral, full of creatures, moist, and hauntingly precious, a reminder of beginnings and endings all at once.  

Q:  In what ways has the Louisiana wetland landscape changed in your lifetime? 

A:  In my lifetime, the Louisiana wetlands are under attack by climate change, by automation of boundaries such as draining, dredging, channelization, diking, and of course by human pollution.

Q: Why is it important to you to create art about Louisiana wetlands? 

A:  The Louisiana wetlands landscape is part of our DNA, our cultural foundation, our food source, our recreation as well.

Q:  In your opinion why is coastal restoration in Louisiana is important? For folks out of state, why is  Louisiana’s coastal restoration work important for the nation? 

A: Louisiana coastal restoration is essential because it is eroding due to all stated above; if it continues to disappear, so will we.

Q: How does your art challenge existing barriers and assumptions about our environmental crisis? 

A: It is my hope that in essays or verse, my work encourages awareness, appreciation, and salvaging our wetlands.

Q:  Where can people view your work (displayed in galleries or links to websites)? 

My articles and poems are published in anthologies, journals, websites, blogs. My first two books Red Beans & Ricely Yours, Poems (2005)  + Second Line Home, New Orleans Poems, are available at bookstores in your area. 

Country ROads Magazine

PBS News Hour

Artist Bio:
Mona Lisa Saloy is an author, folklorist, educator, and scholar, and she was recently named the 2021-2023 Louisiana Poet Laureate. She is an award-winning author of contemporary Creole culture in poems about Black New Orleans before and after Katrina. In addition, she has worked to document sidewalk songs, jump-rope rhymes, and clap-hand games to discuss the importance of play. According to Saloy, “The Louisiana wetlands landscape is part of our DNA, our cultural foundation, our food source, our recreation as well.” You can read more from our interview with Mona Lisa at https://cwppra.wordpress.com/2021/11/04/artist-advocate-mona-lisa-saloy/!​

Want to hear more from Mona Lisa Saloy? She’s a featured speaker at the Water in Poetry event (11/17/21, Sliman Theatre, 6PM) hosted in partnership with Smithsonian Water/Ways & CWPPRA’s “I Remember…” Exhibit on display at the Bayou Teche Museum in New Iberia, LA. This program is funded under a grant from the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities, the state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Artist & Advocate: Jonathan “radbwa faroush” Mayers

Mayers is a Louisiana Creole artist, writer, and independent curator with an impressive list of accomplishments, including being recently named the 2021-2022 Baton Rouge Poet Laureate.

Q:  Please describe your work and the medium/media you use. Why do you make this type of art? 

A:  In my current practice, I paint vibrant representational landscapes to evoke feelings of familiarity, wonder, and adventure, then connect the real and the illusionistic by adorning my work with materials from those distinct locations. Each scene represented in my paintings is linked to either travel experiences, contemporary or historic environmental events, or my personal ancestry. Through Latannyèrizm, a style of colloquial visual art that weaves regional language and physical place, I attempt to champion narratives by addressing human-inflicted and natural consequences through personification in mythological beasts and spark heritage language (re)acquisition in Louisiana by writing trilingual texts in Kouri-Vini, the endangered Creole language of Louisiana, French, and English.  

I use natural materials found in Louisiana – sediment, clay, beeswax – plus acrylic paint, and more recently casein, in my visual artwork. I used to use oil paint, though they can become pretty toxic without proper ventilation, so I stuck with acrylics. Ancestors on both sides of my family were tied to the oil and gas industry in one way or another, so using acrylic paint is my attempt at creating something specific, sparing, and conscious with the precious materials we’ve been given. I still have some paint that’s 5-10 years old, so I try to use it sparingly. I try to be mindful about how and what I make, but sometimes I fail and that’s ok.  

Akòz mo linm nouzòt lenvironmen é rakonté. M’olé fé in bon mak dan nouzòt lakilchi, osit. Because I love our environment and storytelling. I want to make a positive mark on our culture as well. 

Q:  What is most striking or inspirational to you about the wetland landscape?   

A:  Lésens, ça ki pouyant o pouri o byin vivan, é sentimen dan maré-la. Swa dan lamèsh obòr kot o dan sipriyè miské, mo va janmé trapé asé yê lésens. The smell and feel of the wetlands. Whether in a salt marsh or in a musky cypress swamp, I’ll never get enough of their scent. I have a lot of fond memories of my time in the wetlands including going fishing with my dad down in the roseaux near Venice, limiting out on specks in Lac Méchant southwest of Dulac and Lac de Cade, holding up a line of sac-à-lait and brème at the landing on Fòs Rivyè (La Fausse Rivière/False River), jumping into La Belle Rivière from the community pier, and paddling through various locations in my pirogue.  

Q:  In what ways has the Louisiana wetland landscape changed in your lifetime? 

A:  As I mentioned earlier, I used to fish near Venice with my dad and we’d make runs to the Wagon Wheel, whose canals were sadly cut during oil and gas expeditions. This was before I was a senior in high school. Since then, I’ve seen that same Wagon Wheel wash out and become less dense – having taken a flight to survey the Mississippi River only a few years back with, Géraldine Laurendeau, a fellow artist-in-residence at a Studio in the Woods from Montréal. The Bayou Corne sinkhole, which was addressed very poorly – among other things – under Governor Piyush “Bobby” Jindal, also permanently changed the community and landscape of that area. Exacerbated by canal digging, oil well disrepair, and seas of concrete, traka-la (the tracas) brought by Hurricanes Katrina, Ida, and Laura plus other weather events have drastically changed our coastline and swamps as well.

Q: Why is it important to you to create art about Louisiana wetlands? 

A:  I believe our environment and cultures are to be cherished, our experiences appreciated; therefore I create art about and of Louisiana wetlands. In my visual artwork I use acrylic paint, repurposed frames, wood panels, sediment, clay, and adorn each painting with natural materials from our landscape. I view these works as illuminated charms, decorated sarcophagi. I encourage folks to appreciate the very real and physical locations depicted in theses illusions of spaces and encapsulation of real places that very well may no longer exist as we know it within our lifetime. These works exist under clear acrylic film – an attestation to one of perhaps a very few conscious uses of plastic materials that likely wouldn’t exist were it not for the destruction of our environment due to extraction and refinement. Concerning the titles of my work, I think it’s extremely important to continue using our heritages languages in all facets of life – from everyday conversation, to business, and yes, to art, so I make sure to use them. The more we lose our wetlands, the more we lose physical spaces where our languages and cultures exist. This is a global issue regarding land loss, not necessarily just a local or regional one.

Q:  In your opinion why is coastal restoration in Louisiana is important? For folks out of state, why is  Louisiana’s coastal restoration work important for the nation? 

A:  I believe coastal restoration in the state is important because our estuaries and environment are crucial to the survival of our communities, food ways, and natural regional resources. Louisiana is one of the most important and thriving creative hubs on the continent, perhaps in the world, whose communities year-in and year-out adapt themselves to changes which occur through weather patterns and manmade disasters. I’m not proud that many of our people are subject to some of the poorest education conditions or are living below the poverty line, nor of the folks who don’t believe in science, but I am proud there are still people here who fight the good fight through engineering, education, art and various forms of activism. We have a love for our state that I rarely see anywhere else.  

For the folks out of state – Louisiana has seen some of the worst hurricane devastation on this continent é li kontinnwé kaminm (and yet she continues). We’ve had leaders in the 18th, 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries organize and fight for liberty, equal rights, civil rights, and social justice. We’ve inspired generations of artists, writers, and musicians. We’ve been full of engineering and innovative genius. Our seafood and natural resources fuel a great part of the economy. Yet, Louisiana is still used as though it’s the “plantation” of the U.S – an extraction colony as some have put it. What’s important about Louisiana’s coastal restoration is that much of what you love about Louisiana won’t exist in the same way without protecting and nurturing it. 

Q: How does your art challenge existing barriers and assumptions about our environmental crisis? 

A: It may not. I’d say my work presents those barriers – and also triumphs – as myths and legends. Contemporary folktales, really. Many of my paintings and their narratives are derived from subjects related to real people in our communities, experiences tangential to historic events, or imagined creatures inspired by the real physical flora and fauna that exist in our land-, swamp-, and waterscapes.

Q:  Where can people view your work (displayed in galleries or links to websites)? 

Jonathan Mayers

@feral_Opossum

YouTube

Artist Bio (Kouri-Vini):
Jonathan “radbwa faroush” Mayers éné dan réjyon aou Houma é Bayougoula té divizé yê latè par in istrouma ou in baton rouj. Li té élvé desi gran shènn blan pré larivyè Émmit, in plas ki wa dékouvèr é èksplorasyon. Kan li té piti, li té fé in konèksyon avèk sô lenvironnmen ap “soté dan lak pou trapé kawènn, kréyé strikchi en labou, bati pont en bwa, é ap imajiné li-minm konm in tatay pi krazé skayskrépe dan vil krébis.”

Mayers, in Kréyol Lalwizyàn ki lartis, ékrivin, é komisè-lèkspozisyon, gin in lalis komplismen imprèsyonan. Par ègzemp, li té nommé Poèt Loréya a Baton-Rouj 2021-2022

Vouzòt olé tendé plis apré Jonathan? Li va donné in diskour a Water in Poetry (17 novemb 2021, Sliman Theatre, 6PM) prézenté par Smithsonian Water/Ways & lèkspozisyon “I Remember…” a CWPPRA dan Bayou Teche Museum a Nouvèl Ibéri en Lalwizyàn. Programm-çila çé fondé par in sibvensyon a Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities, divizyon léta pou National Endowment for the Humanities.

Artist Bio:
Jonathan “feral opossum” Mayers was born in the area where the Houma and Bayougoula once divided their tribal grounds by the istrouma, le batôn rouge (the red stick). He grew up under the white oaks close to the Amite River, a place that welcomed discovery and exploration. As a child, he formed a connection with his environment by “plunging into lakes to catch turtles, creating mud structures, building wooden bridges, and imagining himself as a monster to then smash skyscrapers in mudbug cities.”

Mayers is a Louisiana Creole artist, writer, and independent curator with an impressive list of accomplishments, including being recently named the 2021-2022 Baton Rouge Poet Laureate.

Want to hear more from Jonathan? He’s a featured speaker at the Water in Poetry event (11/17/21, Sliman Theatre, 6PM) hosted in partnership with Smithsonian Water/Ways & CWPPRA’s “I Remember…” Exhibit on display at the Bayou Teche Museum in New Iberia, LA. This program is funded under a grant from the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities, the state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Artist & Advocate: Jonny Campos

Jonny Campos is a musician based in New Orleans, LA commonly known for his guitar playing with The Lost Bayou Ramblers. In his newly released “Droste” EP, the songs are named for Louisiana sites lost to rising sea levels.

Q:  Please describe your work and the medium/media you use. Why do you make this type of art? 

A:  I play ambient pedal steel music using loop pedals, reel to reels, and a cello bow. I only realized recently that I had always wanted to make records with little interstitial musical vignettes linking songs together, and with this project, I just made a whole record of just the vignettes with no typical verse/chorus songs.

I can’t help but feel that the music that I’ve made is a product of where I’m from.

Jonny Campos

Q:  What is most striking or inspirational to you about the wetland landscape?   

A:  I can’t help but feel that the music that I’ve made is a product of where I’m from. Especially with the Weeks Island project. I’ve always felt that ambient music was somewhat cinematic. I’d like to think that my music could help someone appreciate the natural beauty of a sacred landscape. 

Q:  In what ways has the Louisiana wetland landscape changed in your lifetime? 

A:  Last statistic I found was 50 square miles a year in 1987 and has only escalated. I know the flood plain wasn’t prepared for Katrina so now more than ever we need to restore our coast.

Q: Why is it important to you to create art about Louisiana wetlands? 

A:  I’ve got to come clean here. With the thought of having to name songs without lyrics, I shuddered. Thankfully, Nouveau Electric Artist Director, Louis Michot had the idea of naming each track after places in Louisiana that no longer exist due coastal loss and rising sea levels. It felt like a no brainer.

People drowning in their basement apartments in New York from a gulf hurricane should be proof enough that coastal restoration is important.

Jonny Campos

Q:  In your opinion why is coastal restoration in Louisiana is important? For folks out of state, why is  Louisiana’s coastal restoration work important for the nation? 

A: Coming off the heals of Hurricane Ida (we were very fortunate here in New Orleans and were very little damage), it’s now more than ever apparent how the restoring our coast will provide more and more protection. People drowning in their basement apartments in New York from a gulf hurricane should be proof enough that coastal restoration is important. 

Q: How does your art challenge existing barriers and assumptions about our environmental crisis? 

By naming each track after places that don’t exist anymore due to land loss, Louis helped me bring to the forefront of the listener’s mind of the real impact of coastal erosion.

Q:  Where can people view your work (displayed in galleries or links to websites)? 

Listen to Droste – EP

Artist & Advocate: Tina Freeman

An internationally recognized photographer and New Orleans native, Tina Freeman’s most recent work, Lamentations, pairs images from the Louisiana wetlands and Arctic and Antarctic glaciers that function as “little stories about climate change, ecological balance, and the connectedness of things across time and space”.

Q:  Please describe your work and the medium/media you use. Why do you make this type of art? 

A:  Lamentations is a project that culminated in an exhibition at the New Orleans Museum of Art that  opened September 12, 2019 and closed October 18, 2020. This work took approximately seven years to  complete consisted of landscape photographs paired in diptychs. One image was of the Louisiana  wetlands and one image of locations in the Arctic and Antarctic.  

I make this type of art to increase awareness of the challenges we face as inhabitants of our planet  with the hope that it will spur action to save what we have. We don’t have an extra planet to go to  once we have despoiled/used up this one. 

We are losing our wetlands at an alarming rate, they are not infinite.

Tina Freeman

Q:  What is most striking or inspirational to you about the wetland landscape?   

A:  While sitting in a small boat the wetlands seem vast. I think as humans it is hard for us to see our Earth as that small blue pearl in the universe. This is all we have, and what looks vast is finite. We think we will never run our of resources but we are. Our scoring canals and waterways through the wetlands is  analogous to cutting between veins of our body it is making this fragile environment “bleed out.” We  are losing our wetlands at an alarming rate, they are not infinite. 

Q:  In what ways has the Louisiana wetland landscape changed in your lifetime? 

A:  As a child I remember it as vast and seemingly intact, although the wearing away started in the 1930’s.  I remember when I started to talk about the disappearance of the wetlands fifteen or twenty years ago  people outside of Louisiana thought I was talking of wetlands disappearing due to land fill. I had to  explain, no, it was becoming open water. This was a difficult concept for people from other areas at  the time. 

Q: Why is it important to you to create art about Louisiana wetlands? 

A:  The Louisiana wetlands protect my home (I am a New Orleans native). If we had had the 20+ miles of  wetlands intact that had been lost before Katrina between New Orleans and the Gulf there is the  possibility that the levees would have held. People need to know how we are despoiling our natural  resources. The water held in the Poles is melting at alarming rate. The water in the Poles as it melts will  end up in our wetlands. 

Q:  In your opinion why is coastal restoration in Louisiana is important? For folks out of state, why is  Louisiana’s coastal restoration work important for the nation? 

A: After Katrina, when I visited our lawmakers to lobby for wetland restoration in Washington DC a Senator  from Nebraska asked me why the restoration of Southern Louisiana was of importance to his  constituents. After all, I asked him how the farm production of his farmers would get to their markets if  it were not for the Port of New Orleans. 

The Louisiana wetlands produces a large percentage of seafood produced in United States. 

It is home to Indigenous Tribes and they are losing their land at an alarming rate. 

Q: How does your art challenge existing barriers and assumptions about our environmental crisis? 

A:  When I started this series the connection between the melting glaciers and sea level rise was not  universal. After all that was in 2011. Lots has happened in those 10 years. I think when people see the  paired images they have a clearer sense that what is there (ice) will end up here (LA wetland.) I know  that in the Lamentations exhibition at the New Orleans Museum of Art the wall that show the retreating  (2139) vs advancing glaciers (136) was a shock to many that saw the list in such a graphic form. 

Q:  Where can people view your work (displayed in galleries or links to websites)? 

Tinafreeman.com

A: My website: tinafreeman.com and opening November 18, 2021 Lamentations will be on view at  the Spartanberg Museum of Art 

Google Arts & Culture: Tina Freeman: Lamentations 

From the NY Times: 
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/23/arts/photographs-climate-wetlands-glacier.html 
 
To order the book:  
https://noma.org/shop/tina-freeman-lamentations/ 
 
Lamentations, the video: 
long cut: https://vimeo.com/376878286 
short cut: https://vimeo.com/376881581 

Tina Freeman: Lamentations