art – CWPPRA

Caron Sharpe is a “natural artist.” Her art is inspired by what she loves and finds in nature in south Louisiana. Caron lived in the Azores Islands as a child and began her life-long fascination with tropical flowers and wildlife. Lush tropical images in her art reflect the islands as well as south Louisiana and her love for all things botanical.

Her favorite subjects are native birds and wildlife, moss covered trees and palmettos. Her unique substrates include antique doors, windows, ceiling tiles and slate. She also creates beautiful work in clay. Her faux painting and trompe l’oeil walls along with entries, windows and wood panels adorn the homes of many clients in Louisiana and around the world. Much of her inspiration comes from drawing at her home on the bayou and her lake house on Becky Lake. Follow her on Facebook at Caron’s Creations | Facebook to view more of her work.

On April 1^st residents of Lafourche Parish and places farther afield had a sunny and windy day to celebrate the 4^th Annual Leeville Art & Heritage Festival in Golden Meadow, LA. Organized by Launch Leeville, this festival works to highlight changes in the landscape and community around Leeville as processes like subsidence, erosion, and sea level rise convert land to water. Staff from the Coastal Wetlands Planning, Protection, and Restoration Act, and other exhibitors such as the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana, were present to talk about the causes of land loss and options for protecting and restoring what remains. In addition to live music, craft vendors, and a shrimp boulette competition, festival-goers could learn about coastal restoration projects, see Houma basket weaving demonstrations, and participate in a fishing rodeo.

Leeville sits along Bayou Lafourche and Louisiana Rt. 1, two geographic features that have witnessed a number of CWPPRA projects, from the West Belle Pass Headland Restoration (TE-23) project, which created new marsh and stabilized shorelines to the south of Port Fourchon, to the GIWW to Clovelly Hydrologic Restoration (BA-02) project, which increased freshwater availability to prevent higher salinity levels which could damage local vegetation. Another CWPPRA project, East Leeville Marsh Creation and Nourishment (BA-194), is currently in engineering & design and would provide increased southeastern protection for Leeville from weather and tides. Preserving the livelihoods and heritage of small communities like Leeville requires both protecting their physical setting and giving them the time and space to develop strategies for a changing future.