Recently, I had the pleasure of creating the poster art for TownFolk's third annual Victory Festival in addition to leading the art show and silent auction portion of the event. This year's festival theme was "flora and fauna" based on the growth and abundance currently at the garden. It means a lot to me to be able to help sustain the Victory Garden, which was created in Jillian Johnson's honor, through this yearly fundraiser.
The art show and silent auction was full of dozens of donations from local artists and businesses. I'd like to highlight a few of my personal favorite pieces:
Read MoreAt the beginning of this year, Nicole Touchet of Galerie Touchet approached me about organizing an event in Lafayette to stand in solidarity with the Women's March on January 21st. Our shared goal turned into creating an artistic happening where we could bring awareness to issues we care about while creating a comfortable place for local artists and activists to come together and express our views through art-making. Almost immediately, our new artist-activism group Femme Puissance was named, and we had the concept for our first event on January 21st: Painting Panties for Protection.
During the event, Lafayette artists and activists joined together to organize in solidarity with the Women’s March on D.C. by creating protest posters and painting on over-sized undergarments to draw attention to women’s issues. Drawing on the concepts of Dadaism, we aimed to use absurdity and humor to parallel the illogical nature of America’s current charged sociopolitical climate. Whose to say you can't have humor in activism?
Read MoreFebruary is always an exciting month for me. Not only is it usually a short month, but February also includes Mardi Gras festivities, Valentine's day, my birthday, and Jacob's birthday. This year it got even busier with a five-day visit from my best friend, an artist feature at the Rhum Room, two New Orleans trips, the Courir de Mardi Gras, my first artist talk at Galerie Touchet, a solo show at The Lounge Gallery, underwater modeling, and a busy Art Walk at Gallery 333. And this month isn't even over yet! It's been an amazing month so far, and this is the first time I feel like I really celebrated Mardi Gras thoroughly and did a little bit of everything. I never want to cut the festivities short again!
Read MoreOn November 21st, 2015, we successfully held our first all-inclusive feminist arts festival at the gallery. The concept for the festival originally came out of a conversation with Jacob and a new friend Ally Hollier. We were discussing the way that victims of sexual assault feel as though they no longer have a voice or any power. We were wishing that we had a way to give people who feel this way a platform, when we realized that we did. We reached out to friends and aquantinces over Facebook and quickly found plenty of people who wanted to contribute and support the event. We opened the subject matter up to all feminist-related issues. In the end, we heard perspectives from our event speakers ranging from burlesque dancing and discovering self-love to testimonies of sexual assault.
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