The Art Miles Mural Project (AMMP) is a passionate and colorful ten-year movement combining the efforts of children and adults worldwide to promote global peace and harmony through mural art. Each hand and every mural aims to create and express a global voice to develop and advocate art rather than violence, cooperation instead of war and the continuation of life rather than death. Mile by mile across countries, borders and oceans, The Art Miles Mural Project has become the resonating artistic symbol for peace.
The Crescent City Art Project is beyond grateful for the support of The Art Miles Mural Project. They have been a wonderful source of guidance, insight into possibilities beyond our initial scope and a pleasure to work with. This is only the beginning but our interactions thus far are proof that this will serve as a tremendous partnership.

Art Miles Website

www.artscouncilofneworleans.org

The Arts Council of New Orleans is a private, non-profit organization designated as the City’s official arts agency. Now in its 32nd year, the Arts Council serves as one of eight regional distributing agencies for state arts funds and administers available municipal arts grants and the Percent For Art program for the City of New Orleans.

The Arts Council works in partnership with the City of New Orleans, community groups, local, state, and national governmental agencies, and other nonprofit arts organizations to meet the arts and cultural needs of the New Orleans community through a diversity of initiatives and services.

MISSION STATEMENT
We believe the arts are essential to the life of the community. It is the mission of the Arts Council of New Orleans to support and to expand the opportunities for diverse artistic expression and to bring the community together in celebration of our rich multi-cultural heritage.

The Arts Council provides Cultural Planning, Advocacy, Public Art, Economic Development, Arts Education, Marketing, and Grant and Service Initiatives focused on its vision of New Orleans as a flourishing international center for arts and culture.

www.nolapublicschools.net

NOLACOUTURE  is a New Orleans based company. NOLA Couture is a bright, new fashion-forward take on what it means to live in New Orleans. We feature motifs ranging from the classic fleur de lis to an ironic hurricane symbol (New Orleans always handles the rough patches with an offbeat sense of humor!). You'll find T-shirts and ties, hats and belts, even dog collars and leashes, all with our signature style. And you can feel good about every purchase because NOLA Couture donates a portion of all sales to local charities 

Changents!
Changents is the community online for people asking tough questions about society and demanding a platform for action. Know It, Talk It Up, Make It Happen!

Young Audiences/Arts For Learning is a non-profit arts-in-education organization that serves approximately 200,000 school children in Louisiana each year. Music, Theater, Dance, Poetry and Storytelling and Visual Arts programs are developed to enhance and reinforce curriculum guidelines. Through participation, students gain knowledge to improve academic skills and foster an appreciation for the arts.

GOLDEN constantly strives to outdo itself. The product and the people are always evolving. GOLDEN has grown on three premises: 1) Make the best products, 2) Provide the customer with the best service, and 3) Find those people who can make the first two happen.

Our mission: To grow a sustainable company dedicated to creating and sharing the most imaginative and innovative tools of color, line and texture for inspiring those who turn their vision into reality.

www.dixieart.com

Dixie Art Supplies • 5005 Bloomfield St. • New Orleans, LA 70121
1-800-783-2612 

The Documentary features update on the adversities the residents of New Orleans face post Katrina to what is being done to rebuild their lives. It has a brief profile of D. Banfield our Creative Director....

Ernie K-Doe started his singing career in his church choir and went on to sing with such spiritual groups as the Golden Choir Jubilees of New Orleans and the Divine Traveler. He was inspired by such artists as Big Joe Turner, Ray Charles, B.B. King, Bobby Bland, and Eddie Jones, known to all as Guitar Slim.

At the age of 15, while performing at an amateur night show, he was heard by the manager of the legendary Flamingos. His first recording was the also legendary Chess Record Company with "I Only Have Eyes for You".

Ernie K-Doe had a strong desire to perform, and did with such enthusiasm that he made audiences scream for more. He says he enjoys singing because it gives him a feeling of happiness and joy. This goes back to the days when he felt that way with the spriritual choirs.

Early in his career, he practiced with Joe Tex at the Dew Drop Inn, which is the reason they have similar styles in dancing with the microphone, falling down, and rolling off the stage. He says he never has to move when performing, because he never could keep still, although he never had any dancing lessons. He considers the stage to be a ring and remarks, "If you don't get out there and move they would kill you." Having traveled all over the world, he recalls his best times at the Club Lingerie in Hollywood and the Apollo Theater in New York City. Ernie K-Doe has sung at the Apollo Theater in New York eight times, the Howard Theater in Washington, DC three times, the Uptown Theater in Philadelphia six times, the Regal Theater in Chicago twelve times and Carnegie Hall in New York one time.

Mother-In-Law

Crescent City Art Project (CCAP) is determined to work in all 81 schools; infusing them with art and education. As our list of work is long, so are our needs. We need your help! We encourage artists from all corners of the globe to join us in painting New Orleans. The possibilities are endless from murals to mosaics and even sculptures.  If it excites, we say yes!
So, you don't live in New Orleans, no problem. We encourage people to work remotely; it's easy.  You can send us a mural/mosaic idea or help us on a consulting basis to introduce new mediums of art.
For more information on how you can get involved contact D. Banfield,

Creative Director at DBanfield@crescentcityartproject.org

Laurel True was born in Ann Arbor Michigan in 1968. Growing up in Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin, True always had aspirations of being an artist. After receiving a Bachelors of Art in African Art and Cultures from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, True traveled the world studying about the arts. In 1990 she apprenticed with mosaic artist Isaiah Zagar and began a solid career/ life in mosaic creation.

True continued doing architectural mosaic work, mosaic crafts and fine art throughout the 90s and began teaching courses in mosaic technique in 1994. She began doing public mosaic projects in the late 90s and traveled to Italy to study traditional mosaic setting techniques. In 2001 True formed a relationship with a non-profit in Ghana, West Africa and travels there frequently to work on large- scale community mosaic projects that involve local community.

Much of True’s artwork reflects her love of travel, world cultures, the decorative arts and the urban landscape. She currently resides in Oakland, California where she has a studio, True Mosaic Studio, as well as a retail shop, Mosaic Studio Supply and is planning the opening of the first formal mosaic institute in the U.S.- Institute of Mosaic Arts in late 2005.
www.truemosaics.com

At New Orleans School of Glass and Printmaking in the Gallery District
 Fine Art Mosaics in Glass: May 10-11
 
 In this class we will be dealing with all things glass.  If you have already taken this class I can work with you individually so you can create a more advanced piece.
 
 
 At New Orleans Conservation Guild in the heart of the Bywater
 Mosaics For the Garden: Saturday and Sunday, May 24-25th
 
 We will be covering all things exterior in this class and I will touch on permanent applications for outdoors including murals, three dimensional works and residential, site specific applications!
 Students will make a stepping stone with high fire, exterior grade tile.

Syndey Byrd is an artist, ethnographer and journalist who, over the past thirty years, has devoted much of their life to documenting the culture and celebrations of Southern Louisiana in color photographs. Her work is distinguished by its scope of subject, graceful intimacy and seductive color. Nowhere are these characteristics more powerfully represented than in Byrd's images of the New Orleans region's remarkable Carnival season. Selected from thousands, Byrd's most extraordinary photographs will appear in an exhibit entitled "Carnival" set to open at the International Folk Art Museum in Santa Fe, new Mexico in November 2004. The work, and others depicting Carnival celebrations around the world, will later travel to the UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History in Los Angeles, the American Museum of Natural History, New York, the New Orleans Museum of Art, and the Dallas Museum of Art.

Byrd's interest in the elaborate customs and indigenous music of the deep Southern U.S. and neighboring Caribbean region has produced authoritative catalogues of Haitian Art, architecture and ceremony; jazz funerals and other unique New Orleans traditions; the world renowned Jazz and Heritage Festival held annually in New Orleans and the boldest mannerisms of societies around the globe. Her tireless efforts, coupled with her winning images and personality, have given her lens access to both the very popular and private, the commonplace and flamboyant. As commercial clients and private collectors have long acknowledged, Syndey    Byrd is a source when only a once-in-a-lifetime photo will do.

Syndey Byrd was one of nine photographers chosen from 5,000 featured in the PBS television special funded by Kodak and based on Ten Thousand Eyes, a photo-documentary project of the American Society of Magazine Photographers. Recently, she won two New Orleans Press Club Awards: the Hal Ledet Memorial Award for Best Print Photography and Fist Place for Photo Story for her photos "Good Greif New Orleans Jazz Funerals" that appeared in Louisiana Cultural Vistas

David Cascio is an artist who specializes in drawing, metal fabrication, and painting. He was born in Baton Rouge, LA and went to college at Southeastern Louisiana University, where he studied Visual Art. He concentrated in drawing, sculpture, and digital art. When he first started, his curiosity of the human form and behavior was a critical part of each artwork. As his style developed, there has been more emphasis of cynicism and behavior with the figure. 

Emily Minnie is an artist/ designer who specializes in painting, printmaking and portraiture. Born in Cedar Rapids Iowa she earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Northern Iowa, Cedar Falls and a Master of Fine Arts degree in Printmaking from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.    Emily moved to New Orleans with her husband Josh to teach as a Three-Year Visiting Assistant Professor and Tulane University in New Orleans where she taught beginning printmaking, lithography, intaglio, screen printing and drawing. She is currently working as a freelance designer and independent artist.  Through her artwork Emily investigates instances of perception and memory. She depicts figures dissolving into or emerging from backgrounds, interacting with the space surrounding them and the camera/computer effects encroaching upon them. Using images from popular culture (primarily film stills) she utilizes devices such as fragmentation, light manipulation, cropping, inclusion or deletion of information and camera/computer effects to illustrate my perception of memory as an instance easily confused. 

Michelle Pontiff is a native of Louisiana. She has been interested in creating and drawing from an early age. As an artist Michelle has taken a love for the simple act of creation and has developed her talent to express the daily positive and negative interactions and relationships among ourselves and also with our environment. Michelle lets the idea take precedence in the art making process, allowing it to choose the medium in which she works. Her subject matter ranges from the little details of everyday life to a social commentary on large issues. By studying the surrounding environment Michelle aims to create an environment in which the viewer can exist rather than observe. 

 Michelle Harmon

Waterline

an interactive photo installation by

Bette J. Kauffman

Waterline, the photo installation, consists of 8 x 12 photographs mounted on white foam core and installed edge to edge with only the waterline in each photograph aligned. The photographs for each installation are selected from approximately 575 exposures made during five trips to New Orleans, April 1 through June 10, 2006.

The current version of Waterline installed in the Coolspace gallery of Artspace in downtown Shreveport consists of approximately 117 linear feet of photographs extending from door frame to door frame around the four walls of the exhibition space.

Waterline is an interactive exhibit. Marking pens are available for visitors to record responses to the photos on the foam core above and below the photographs. Many have responded with expressions of passion, anger, hope and faith. Here’s a sample:

Waterline was installed in the St. Mathias Chapel of Grace Episcopal Church on Canals St. in New Orleans from August 29, 2007 through the end of the year, and for a two-week period in December, 2006, as a part of Art with a View in Premiere Tower on North 18^th St. in Monroe.

Artist’s Statement: I began photographing the waterline in the city of New Orleans because it spoke powerfully to me of the devastation of a wonderful and irreplaceable city. The installation method of exhibiting these photographs seeks to evoke the ubiquitous, equalizing and emotional power of the actual flood line in the city of New Orleans. I am persuaded that many people—most people—who did not see firsthand the neighborhoods of ruined homes do not fully grasp what happened. New Orleans—not just the French Quarter, but all of it—must rise again.

            This project, like all of my photography, documents the human condition in all of its glory and pathos, heroism and hubris, dignity and degradation.

The photographer:

Bette J. Kauffman received her B.A. in Journalism (1980) from the University of Iowa and her M.A. (1982) and Ph.D. (1992) in Communications from the University of Pennsylvania. She has professional experience in still photography, videography, journalism, and public relations. She has exhibited photographs in The Bowl Room Gallery of the Iowa Memorial Union and in the School of Journalism at the University of Iowa, and has won awards in underwater photography competitions. Her honors thesis used photography to study cross-cultural uses of public space, her Master’s thesis studied children’s ability to interpret and analyze news and advertising photographs, and her doctoral dissertation was an ethnographic study of women artists. She is an associate professor of mass communication at the University of Louisiana at Monroe.

Being from the Deep South, Kimberly’s art is influenced by her life exposed to the Gulf of Mexico and southern culture. She often celebrates New Orleans as the capital of the northern Caribbean with her vibrant palette and subject matter.

“I am constantly stimulated by the local scenes of environment, music, food, and most of all by the unique people that make New Orleans a cultural other world epicenter.”

Kimberly taught herself to cut the old roofing metal that she reclaims to use in her art. She finds the materials from old houses or by chance. Found structural elements are favorite inspirations for the pieces which evoke images of the architecture of New Orleans or the tropics, worn with exposure to the lush climate. The layers of wood, metal, and added objects give the pieces depth and dimension with a collage result.

 Losing an entire body of art in two galleries that washed away in the Katrina deluge, while having her Dutch Alley gallery looted and vandalized, Kimberly spent three months putting her personal life back together and participating in two “displaced artists” shows. To quote Blanche Dubois from the Tennessee Williams play “Streetcar Named Desire”, “I’ve had to rely on the kindness of strangers”. The generosity of strangers (now friends) allowed an outlet for art to be sold until she could produce again. The materials used now are Katrina debris.

Kimberly was a watercolorist and employed by the Walter Anderson family for many years. Her work can be found in galleries in coastal areas of several states, commercial businesses, and private collections. She is currently represented seven days a week and working by chance at Dutch Alley Artists co-op in the French Market of New Orleans just steps away from Jackson Square. Her work can be found in other French Quarter galleries on  Royal Street at  Kako,  and Artisan’s. She also sells at Rue Cou Cou in Baton Rouge, Lousiana, and A-OK in Bay St. Louis, MS.Kimberly Parker

40 Nights Creative 

Contact Nathan

A writer/photographer with extensive publishing experience. You'll find portfolios of his photography work at www.40nightscreative.com He will happily send writing samples upon request. 

40 Nights Photography & Writing is owned by Nathan Chandler and based in Lincoln, Nebraska.

A lot of companies go out of their way to make clients happy -- I guarantee it. I'll work with you until your pictures are perfect. In the case of weddings, I prefer to meet my clients in person before committing to a job so that everyone is comfortable  with the shoot plan.

My style requires minimal artificial lighting, so I use no studio lights. I approach wedding and portrait shoots like the fast-moving, once-in-a-lifetime events that they are.

I shoot and move quickly and avoid many of the artifiicial poses that make people uncomfortable and result in uninteresting images. Instead, we'll find the best light and the most beautiful locations and use them to make striking images. 

Although only her infant feet have touched Cuban soil, Clara Diaz has lived a lifetime in her home country. Her connection lies in the age old art of story telling. Listening to the experiences of Papi (her father) she mentally recorded the life he lived there. He also taught Diaz how to woodwork, upholster and paint.  “My father greatly influenced my life and the artist I am today,” said Clara. “Hearing words like embargo, blockage and border peppered the conversations I heard as a child.”  

The stories have caused a longing to grow within her soul to one day, touch her adult feet back down on that dusty, warm ground.   Sadly, Clara may never get that opportunity as legal restrictions prevent her from exploring her native land. Her father commandeered a patrol boat in 1965, packed up his family and two other families and fled for safety to Jamaica. Under British rule the families were granted amnesty. Under the new dictatorship of Castro, her father  knew the family would not have a happy life.   In the absence of physical contact with Cuba Clara’s art allows her to express a life she knows but never lived.  Cuban roots constantly tug Clara south to see the vibrant colors that she somehow produces in her art without having seen it.

Her Crooked Houses series evolved from surviving Hurricane Katrina a storm that also tormented her homeland before reaching the Gulf Coast. Now a resident of New Orleans Clara has vivid memories of her own to “document” via oil, acrylic, pencil and pen, and Clara loves to paint on wood as a medium.   With punchy  art colors Clara records two microcosms of culture and somehow allows them to relate.  

“We only really grow through the tough experiences in our lives,” said Clara. “From the bottom we look up and see the sky as the limit. Occasionally, we paint it.”     Clara Diaz works as an independent artist. She was born in Niquero, Cuba, but also lived in Jamaica, the United States, Barcelona, Spain. While Clara has strong Cuban roots on her father’s side, she draws from the rich culture of her mother's family who are from Cordova, Spain.

The result is a powerful spirituality with a deep respect for the struggles and beauty of both cultures. Other inspirations include her travels, music, the community where she works, and the powerful energy that emanates from the people with whom she surrounds herself. 

Much of Clara’s work depicts a spiritual vision of a better place, represented in the style of Pop Art and stylized in many forms. The various mediums she uses include markers, acrylics, pencil, pen and ink, collage, and lost-wax, printmaking. Many of Clara’s pieces evolve from painful places, but transform into optimism through her choices of color. Always ready to loosen the creative energy inside, that provokes our souls. 

www.starletteproductions.com

Photography has been an integral part of my daily life. I picked up my first camera, a Polaroid, at the age of 12 and have been taking photos ever since. Today, I work mostly with digital images and computer manipulations exploring and destabilizing the relationship between image and “reality”.

In the Second Life series, my fictional animated character exists in the virtual terrains of Second Life*. I invented this avatar as a digital representation of me. She appears in this series playing out different roles, putting on different costumes, and moving through environments that range from rooftops to Venice and lonely highways.

These digital “snapshots” echo Cindy Sherman’s solitary heroines in Untitled Film Stills 1977-1980, a series that “map(s) a particular constellation of fictional femininity that took hold in postwar America.

*Second Life is a 3D online digital world owned by Linden Lab. Through avatars, users (or “virtual residents”) may model, build, and interact with alternate ways of living.