Fleur-de-Bris the Signs of Continued Recovery in New Orleans
By Rosalynn Moore
Blanche Debris, roast beef debris,
and now Fleur-de-bris: All are gifts from the Crescent City. Blanche Debris is
the name of a French Quarter character who reigns over the Mardi Gras Day
Costume Review. Roast Beef debris is the name allotted to a very sloppy poor
boy sandwich which is only as good as the amount of au juice that drips down your
arms while eating. Fleur-de-Bris is the name, according to Heather Mattingly
that she assigned to her debris encrusted flowers.
Revisiting New Orleans in June left
me with the impression that Debris Art is massaging a wounded city. Several
debris artists are displaying their healing processes using nuts, bolts, bottle
caps, broken glass, shells, and imagination!
Annie Lennox’s song “Walking on
Broken Glass” could certainly be the theme song of “Trina”, one artist who
moved back to Gentilly in Eastern New Orleans after a St. Louis evacuation. While
in Missouri,
Trina became focused on stained glass art.
She reported that when she returned to her beloved hometown, “Windows
were everywhere;…. me and my son, Max, were scavengers.” Like the crabs of South Louisiana, these scavengers make found objects
homey, welcoming, beautiful, and hopeful.
The photo above is a window by Trina, into the chaos that blew ashore:
hinges, film negatives, and a door knocker, all are embedded signs of recovery.
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In a second piece by “Trina”,
broken vases are implanted to recreate “Eve’s” face. Like so many of the Gulf Coast
survivors, Eve is resurrected from the shards of rediscovered treasures. Trina
reports that individuals have brought to her relics from their homes to
incorporate into memorial glass patchworks. These renderings resemble colorful
band aids lovingly placed over wounds.
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I viewed “Fleur
des Bris” wall hangings collaged from watches, plastic beads, bottle caps, and
screws attached to wooden cut outs created by Heather Mattingly and Kerry
Fitts. Heather is a carpenter by day and an artist by night who says that she
misses her family. She believes that her
parents and two special needs siblings are better provided for in a
non-recovering city. Her miniature shotgun relics are as colorful and numerous
as the originals. I imagine that a busy post-Katrina carpenter feels the pulse
of these old homes. Her mini-homes each hold a fleur-de-bris memory. Perhaps
they, too, wonder if their former glory will be reclaimed from the ruins.
These signature flowers are
bouquets of strength in New Orleans. Artists
are expressing their grief and recovery as they explore the fringes of the
devastation for tidbits of their former lives from which they create new
offerings. The resulting images resemble the Mayan Sastun, a stone of light, flashing
brilliantly as these artists apply their craft like the ancient healers, who
also relied solely upon native materials to produce their healing balms.
I purchased a tiny key which hangs
from a mother-of-pearl belt buckle. The flat three- notched key looks like one
that would open a small precious chest. The key has a tiny silver fleur de lies
attached on a loop. This whole group is tied together with a piece of white
lace ribbon. I wear this as an amulet around my neck on a thin piece of leather
that I tie up in the back. I feel like my heart is protected and held safely in
place behind my amulet. Kerry Fitts has several of these necklaces for sale in
the Magazine Metal Shop at 2036 Magazine St.
Across the
street at 2127 Magazine St., Ruth Marie Wright, who has her before-and
after-Katrina self portraits hanging near one another, shows a happy
pre-Katrina face and a self strangulation post Katrina death grip. Joan Trenor,
the owner of the Cameron Jones Shop, says that the artist’s latest work shows a
happier side with more of the joie de vivre that was illustrated before the
storm. Ruth says, “My painting is my salvation.” Ruth Marie’s left hand is no
longer wrapped around her neck in a self-strangulating hold, but those hands
are stretching her mouth with her fingers into a huge grin with her tongue
sticking out between her lips in a raspberry-like fashion. Her newest work has
four women drinking and playing cards, and like the art her luck is improving,
too. After moving around for three years, she now has a home near Lafayette,
LA. The return of humor and a roof over
the head of her head and the head of her 50 year old disabled daughter, Andy,
are certainly signs of healing.
On another wall in the gallery there
hangs a humorous dream catcher of sorts. “The Bone Woman,” the only moniker of
a female artist has a soft sculpture weaving a crab shell, feathers, and broken
boards from her post-Katrina home. She annotates the work with a hand-inscribed
title: “Keep on Laughin’ and Da Whol’ World Smiles wit’ You.” Blessed be, Bone
Woman. Joan says that The Bone Woman could certainly benefit from the sale of
her art. Like for so many artists in New Orleans, the need for cash is a given.
Returning to lost and destroyed edifices is such an overwhelming tasks, it
could zap Mother Teresa’s energy. How these artists have recovered is a
testament to their resiliency. They
represent the side of a city that history has bought and sold, one into which
the Mississippi River, Lake Pontchartrain, and the Gulf of Mexico waters have
poured trillions of tons of debris. Enough is dredged and washed ashore for
thousands of art works.
Debris from this mighty river is
used by its citizens to create levees, make a category 5 coffee with chicory,
and wash its dirty laundry. What it
washes down is used to make furniture, frame art, and create a molten river
brown that only flood waters dare generate.
Heralded and sung about for
generations, the river stills rolls along, and so do the artists who have the
rich visions to make beauty from so unique a spot on our planet. This richness
has been evolving for centuries and will continue to flow; lucky those of us
who have the opportunity to see the many beautiful gifts that wash up onto our
shores and who display the works for others to see. To end on a musical note, a
sound track if you please, listen to Annie Lennox’s “Into the West,” from The Lord of the Rings. Like the power that must be returned to its
source, these artists desire to rise again out of the broken glass and
shattered dreams and to exemplify to the world the healing power wrenched out
of their Post-Katrina debris lives.
* Unfortunately, these galleries did not continue. They have been replaced by other types of shops.
* Unfortunately, these galleries did not continue. They have been replaced by other types of shops.
Debris: Art and
Artists 2008
Anchors to others
Wings to artist…
Dredged and washed ashore;
Debris from Katrina
Become feathers,
Strom churned energy,
“Kicked up a notch”.
Replacing the sour with the freshly
Enriched soil and soul fertilizer;
Mother Earth’s reclaiming her children;
Giving “new eyes” to see
Rust encrusted debris,
Turned focal points,
“Found” objects of art.
Rosalynn Moore
July 13, 2008
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