Featuring Ransom McCormick in The Changed Waters exhibition

I discover today that not only we will be observing the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina that for some of us, early Sept will also mark the 50th anniversary of Hurricane Betsy both of which I barely escaped by having moved away 2 weeks prior to Betsy and not returning just two weeks before Katrina and the levees breaking.  Go figure




 Right Side of "We Survived Katrina~Ransom McCormick 22"x24"

No Woman...No Cry (Any Longer)..You"re Building a Castle ~ Changed Waters exhibition

"If someone throws rocks at you, you can do one of two things: you can pick up & throw back or you can build a castle" ~ Terence Howard.





"I Cry for My City"~Michele Lambert, artist

Rhythm & Hues @1501 is delighted to learn that one of our artists, Michele Lambert, will be interviewed by Sally Ann Roberts anchor at WWL-TV New Orleans. Michele was featured in the aftermath 10 years ago as acknowledge as one of their "Quiet Heros" for her deeply moving works that aptly show the pure raw emotions that many felt  in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina & Rita.

You must see this very touching video from 2005...

Michele-Cry-100406.wmv: http://youtu.be/D_kFrho5C6g

Michele's prolific piece "I Cry for My City" created shortly after the storm is still profoundly affecting many today.  The Michele also has prints of this imagery in the art space.  Her pesistant goal is to sell the original so in part to donate to charity.  As part of that team, Rhythm & Hues @ 1501 will make the prints available.  or you can go to her website at www.michelelambertartist.com.



This follow up interview and will also showcase the art space "Changed Waters: Thrown Rocks, Building Castles" that Michele Lambert & 25 other artists... ranging from 13-70. And so no doubt the gallery is please that the taping will be at the gallery & in part, showing the art of the other artists that are in varied ways thir deeply held feelings of their beloved home before during and after the storms. 


Michele's Artist Statement (in part)

“I believe if you paint it well enough the subject doesn’t matter. My body of work is a collection of what moves me. I paint because I am driven to say something. It’s about expressing emotions and passion. It’s so much bigger than me. I listen to my inner voice, push past the fear of judgment and appreciate the results.My artwork is like me, it is very simple and direct. You don’t have to question what you are looking at. I am a purist by nature. I don’t use props, projectors or mixed media. I work only with acrylic and water. I don’t follow any rules, I don’t measure, I don’t have a plan. I have a natural ability to put things into perspective. I visualize it and I paint it.


We are listed with the City of New Orleans: 

www.katrina10.org

You can see the art featured in the footage at 1501 Canal from July 20-Sept 6th. All the artists have created profound, poignant, soulful renditions for this exhibition.

Written on the walls of my former home post Katrina 2005


Rhythm & Hues @ 1501
rhythmnhues@gmail.com
www.burnttoastsweetteathyme.blogspot.com
1501 Canal Street
NOLa 70112

Changed Waters exhibtion to open August 1

 “You can do two things when people throw rocks at you. Pick them up and throw them back, or collect those stones and build yourself a castle.” ~Terence Howard

 There will be a number artists exhibiting their work in this exhbition with expressing where they are today or reflecting where they were when boulders was being hurled at them during the storm.  I searched for visual imagery for my own story and decided I need to go back for a moment...

Fortunately my neighbor at that time, musician Ben Schneck of the Panorama Jazz Band was kind enough to return to the house and shot these images in Oct rough about 5 weeks out from the storm

The images I am showing here were from my old place Uptown New Orleans roughly about 5 weeks after Hurricane Katrina & Rita and the levees breaking.  I had a viscereal response.

If anything, it solidifies for me why I must do the "Changed Waters: Thrown Rocks, Building Castles" exhibition that will open Aug1 through Sept 6th,2015.

Fortunately in one way, I am I was not here but actually had just been ask to extend my residency at Bennett College for Women in North Carolina. I was literally two weeks out from the storm preparing to return back to New Orleans.

But for all intent and purposes I was.  More on that later.



You can see the bags caught in the trees outside my bay windows.  Mind you this is two floors above ground.  The murals were done by artist Michele Lambertthat I had commissioned in 2000.


Bay window view




In my dining room




Dining room



Inscribe by the person who rented the house after I moved out


The fire that took out the whole block across the street from me.

Changed Waters:Thrown Rocks, Building Castles~ Call for Artists

"Changed Waters: Thrown Rocks, Building Castles"


CALL FOR VISUAL ARTISTS: The focus of this exhibition is to showcase works
of art that depict transformation. The process of change takes on many forms,
but what does change look like to you? Coinciding with the 10th anniversary of
Katrina & Rita, the will be held Wednesday, Aug 26, 2015 from 4-7p.m at Rhythm
& Hues Art Space, 1501 Canal St, New Orleans, LA 70112.


SUBMISSIONS: Artists can submit 1-3 works for consideration. Accepted media
can be any 2-D or 3-D media, such as painting, photography, fiber, mixed media,
pencil, ink, prints or sculpture. All work accepted must be ready to hang. Artists
must provide their own easels or pedestals for free standing pieces/sculptures/.
Included with your submission should be one to two short paragraph artist
descriptions of each submitted piece.


Submission deadline is July 1, 2015. All art images must be submitted
electronically. Please e-mail submissions as jpegs to rhythmnhues@gmail.com
for review. Selected works must be delivered to Rhythm & Hues Art Space at
1501 Canal St New Orleans, LA 70112 by July 6, 2015.



ENTRY REQUIRMENTS:
You must be a member in good standing of Ashé Cultural Arts Center’s Side By
Side program.


EXHIBITION DATES: July 17, 2015 - August 31, 2015
Rhythm & Hues Art Space, 1501 Canal St, New Orleans, LA 70112.


GALLERY HOURS:
Wednesday – Saturday| 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. & 4:00 – 6:00 PM
Monday – Tuesday | By Appointment Only
For questions and any other additional information, please contact:
rhythmnhues@gmail.com

504-645-6168

Discovery...After so Many Years

This was one of the murals in my dining room at 2120 Jena Street 2005 created by Michele Lambert

Lesson Learned...

NOTE:I stumbled upon this article I saved from eight years ago.  As I am working on the Changed Waters exhibition I thought this still has merit was worthy of repeating and applying as we approach the 10th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina and Rita...



KAT RPT: the ten most important lessons learned - two years of katrina
========================================================

The Ten Most Important Lessons Learned
- Two Years of Katrina
By Bill Quigley 

One.  Build and rebuild community.

When disaster hits and life is wrecked, you immediately seem to be on your
own.  Isolation after a disaster is a recipe for powerlessness and depression. 
Family, community, church, work associations are all important – get them up
and working as fast as possible.  People will stand up and fight, but we need
communities to do it.  Prize women – they are the first line of community
builders.  Guys will talk and fight and often grab the spotlight, but women will
help everyone and do whatever it takes to protect families and communities.

  Powerful forces mobilize immediately after a disaster.  People
and politicians and organizations have their own agendas and it helps them if
our communities are fragmented.  Setting one group against another, saying one
group is more important than another is not helpful.  Stress and distress is
high for everyone, but community support will multiply the resources of
individuals.  Build bridges.  People together are much stronger than people alone.


Two.  Self-reliance.

Your community must be ready to re-settle your property as soon as possible
and care for those most in need. Prioritize help for the elderly, the sick,
children and women, especially the poor. The prime cure for helplessness is
taking control over your own life and joining others to fight for justice.
            Groups and people will want to treat you like a victim – say you
are traumatized and incapable of making basic decisions about yourself.  They
will tell you they know best and act like they know best. Tell them to get
lost.


Three.  Tell your own story.

 Sharing our stories, successes and failures, is a way to connect
and educate ourselves.  Connecting with others nationally and internationally
who have been through disasters is the very best thing that you can do. 
Disasters and the corporations that cause them and profit from them do not respect
national boundaries.  Look for global justice connections.  Learn from those
who have been through this before.  They will tell you - do not let anyone say
who you are or what is best for your community – say it yourself.
Those in power will blame circumstances outside their control for what
happened and inevitably they will blame the victims of the disaster.  Those in
power will tell the people’s story in ways that makes the powerful look good.   If
others do not tell the truth – you do it and get your stories out.  Real
allies help lift up the voices of the people.


Four.  Value every single human life equally.

Every religion and human rights recognizes that every single person is
entitled to human dignity.  There are no forms to fill out, no criteria to meet. 
Every single person no matter their race or gender or economic situation has
equal value.  Every person has the right to participate in the response to the
disaster equally.  Every single person and family has the right to repair and
rebuild and participate in the decisions being made.

 The exact opposite occurs after a disaster.  The people with
economic and political power get together and decide what has to happen.  They
also decide which people are “worthy” of getting help first.   They consider
poor working people disposable and movable. Since this is an emergency, they say
there is not time to allow regular people to participate in the decisions. 
If every single person is not treated equally before the disaster hits, they
certainly should not expect to be treated fairly after.

Five.  Don’t wait for a leader – become one.

  Resist the tendency to think someone else is going to come save
you.  There is no leader out there.  We must each become leaders and followers
in order to bring about the change that is needed.  Each of us is challenged
to get beyond our pre-disaster comfort zone.  New leadership is essential to
avoid just repeating the mistakes that contributed to the disaster.

  Those who work for human development instead of real estate
development will be repeatedly criticized as “obstructionist” by those who do not
value every life equally.   Be prepared for these criticisms.  That is what
they said about Mandela, Gandhi, ML King.  Good company.


Six.  Prepare for a Love-Hate Relationship with the Government.

After disaster, only the government has the resources to help fix major
problems for the social good.  We must hold them accountable and demand that the
public sector mobilize and assist in an equitable way.

At the same time, we cannot wait for the government. Nor can we necessarily
listen to the government. After a disaster, the government will immediately be
manipulated by those in power.  We must both critique the government and
build our own alternative community supports.


Seven.  Government will help businesses first and second and third, and if
there is anything left, maybe fourth.

Who is in charge of government before the disaster?  Governments will look
to privatize the public sector – housing, health, education, transportation,
every system after a disaster.  That was what they wanted before the disaster,
so the disaster offers them an opportunity to move their plans into action.
Corporations see disasters as opportunities.  They look for valuable land
that poor people were living on before the disaster. They decide that there is a
better economic use for that land.  Then they will push the government to
come up with some excuse to take the land for other uses.

You will quickly see that those with power and money before the disaster end
up with more power and more money after the disaster.   You will see that 98%
of the money distributed in a disaster ends up enriching corporations.  Our
most colorful example is the blue tarps that the government put on the roofs of
houses after Katrina.  The main contractor, Shaw Group, got $175 a square to
put on the tarps.  They subcontracted the work out to another corporation for
$75 a square.  The second corporation subcontracted the work out to a third
corporation for $30 a square.  Who in turn subcontracted it out again to guys
who did the work for $2 a square.  Two dollars a square for the actual worker is
less than 2 percent of what the government paid out – guess who got the
money.

Wonder why the Gulf Coast is not fixed up yet? This is not an accident.  It
is not that the system isn’t working.  It is working for the benefit of those
who create and fund and manipulate it.  Read Naomi Klein’s THE SHOCK DOCTRINE:
The Rise of Disaster Capitalism.  It spells it out in detail.
If government works primarily for corporations before the disaster, after
the disaster it will be a hyper corporate-friendly environment.     


Eight.  Disasters reveal the structural injustices in our communities in
race, gender and class and are thus learning and action opportunities.

 Wonder about the role of race, class and gender in society? 
Watch what happens when disaster strikes.  Who is left behind during the
disaster?  Who is left behind in the repair and rebuilding and planning and
decision-making?  Disasters illuminate injustices.

 There is tremendous educational opportunity to look at what
really matters in our society after a disaster.  The curtains are pulled back. 
The bandages are ripped off.  Our histories of injustice are laid bare for all to
see.  International human rights create great opportunities to reframe the
justice discussion.

  But just looking is insufficient.  Join in solidarity with the
same folks who are left out.  If a disaster can be an opportunity for those
interested in unjust economic advantage, why cannot we change the pattern and
make it an opportunity to redistribute justice in our communities and right the
wrongs that created what all can now see?

         
Nine.  A justice-based reconstruction will not be funded.

 Money will flow.  Charities, churches and governments will send
money for charitable help.  If your community is trying to create a more just
community than the one destroyed by the disaster, there will not be funding
for that.  If you are trying to make the community fairer for and with the poor,
the elderly, and those who lived in unjust circumstances before the disaster –
get ready to raise your own funds for your organization.  Funding for
charity will come, but funding for justice will not.

We must insist on some transparency and accountability from the
non-profits and foundations and others who have raised and spent billions in
the names of those in distress.  They cannot be allowed to operate like
multi-national corporations – they must open their books and involve people in their
decision-making.

Solidarity not charity is one of the great demands to come out of Katrina
from the Common Ground collective.  Another is “Nothing about us without us is
for us” from Peoples Hurricane Relief.

After Katrina, it again became clear that decades of oil
development has literally destroyed the natural protections around the gulf coast. 
Yet the disaster actually enriched the oil companies who helped cause it,
creating their biggest year of profit in some time.  Yet, do you hear the voices of
those calling out for the oil corporations to be held accountable for what
they have caused?  Those voices are small and unfunded.  But they, like so many
others calling for justice, are out there and will one day be heard.


Ten.  Love is the answer – justice work is a commitment for the long haul.
    
When disaster hits, there is a natural urge to work around the
clock to try to set things right.  After a few weeks or months, it will become
clear that is not sustainable.  Working 24 hours a day is going to make you as
crazy as the government.  No one likes a crank – even if they are working for
justice.

Building communities of resistance and working for human
development is long-term work.  Love is a tremendous source of energy.  But we have to
love ourselves as well so we can keep living this resistance with others.  We
have and will continue to make mistakes.  We have to get back up, dust
ourselves off, forgive ourselves and others, and get back to working in community to
create a more just world.

 It is important to laugh too.  Remember that last job held by
the guy in charge of disasters for the entire US government was as head of an
association of dancing horses!  We can’t make this stuff up.
We have to love and laugh along with our tears and rage and keep learning
new lessons.


Bill is a human rights lawyer and law professor at Loyola University New
Orleans.  He can be reached at Quigley@loyno.edu

Seasoned en Vieux: Hear! Hear!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
GALERIE 1504 PRESENTS “SEASONED EN VIEUX” WITH AN
INVITATION-ONLY RECEPTION FOR SPECIAL GUESTS AND
MEDIA



Pop-up Gallery Launching a Talented Cross-Section of Unique Artists’
Works at Dec. 19 Opening Event

 

 

 

 

"Dancers"~Michele Lambert, artist

 

NEW ORLEANS, LA - December 15, 2014 – Galerie 1504 is pleased to present a
group exhibition of new works featuring all Gallery artists. The “Seasoned en Vieux” exhibit will run from December 19, 2014 – January 11, 2015 with an invitation-only, opening reception on Friday, December 19th from 12:30 - 2:30 p.m. This exhibit is a part of the Galerie 1501 pop-up series, spotlighting various collections of art for a limited time in alternative spaces.




“Seasoned en Vieux" or “A Seasoned View” is a multi-faceted exhibit with a number of thought provoking themes that are meant to dispel the common thought of our society as a whole. One of the most prevalent of these themes being that individual talent does not simply dissipate with age, but rather it grows in wisdom and perspective as time passes. Just as this theme is meant to dispel these specific misconceptions in both the creative realm and general society, it is also intended as a caveat of positive change for
senior citizens & their allies, to dispel the myth about the ones who are entering their encore years with panache!



This Galerie 1501 pop-up showcase will be located at 1501 Canal Street on the first floor of the historic Texaco building. HRI Properties has kindly donated this temporary exhibit space as a part of their mission to enhance the lives and sensibilities of their tenants, as well as, creatively enhance the current Canal Street Renaissance process.


“Seasoned en Vieux” is made up of various artistic disciplines; such as photography, studio art, quilts, sculptures, muralists, and wearable art. Seventy-five percent of the twenty-nine artists featured are over the age of 60. This impressive representation of senior artists only exemplifies the thought that true artists never retire...they only become more seasoned!


The exhibit will also feature pieces by New Orleans’ own, Terrence Osburne, Michele Lambert, "visual poet" artist Jacquelyn Hughes Mooney and acclaimed artist Sheila Phipps. Many of these works are city inspired pieces that reflect the extraordinary history and traditions that have set the city of New Orleans apart from anywhere else in the world.


“Seasoned en Vieux” will run through January 12, 2015. The artists will be present at the opening reception Friday, December 19th from 12:30 – 2:30 p.m. Gallery hours are Monday – Friday 1:00 – 4:00 p.m., and by appointment.


For additional information please contact Jacquelyn Hughes Mooney 504.645.6168 or rhythmnhues@gmail.com.

 ###
 For media information, contact:
Angelique Christina
504.444.3942
angelique@nexusmediaone.com



Tres Bien! I do Declare! ~ A Fascinating Artist, Michele Lambert

 

 

 

Paris~Michele Lambert, artist

 

 

My process is about the energy in the light, and the color reflected from that light. Space is what is left. I feel the energy of that space and time. I can see it, taste it, and smell it. I experience it with all my senses and get to know it. I approach the subject by painting shapes and dark colors, leaving white space and then refine it until I feel I know it as much as I need to.

I paint from dark to light which is exactly the opposite of what I was taught in art school. But it’s the way I see it and it feels right to me. I like the feeling of getting as deep as I can and coming back out of it with intense bright light, color and definition. By using layers and layers of color it makes the work complicated and rich.

My artwork is like me, it is very simple and direct. I am a purist by nature. I don’t use props, projectors or mixed media. I work only with acrylic and water. I don’t follow any rules, I don’t measure, I don’t have a plan. I have a natural ability to put things into perspective. I visualize it and I paint it.

Everyone has feelings that are unique to them and the art’s job is to bring those feelings forward. If you see my work from the corner of your eye and look back because it makes you stop, draws you to look deeper into it and then look again , if it conjures up a feeling in you, then it’s done it’ job.”

Http://MicheleLambertArtist.com

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Represented by DREAM, LLC

Contact - Debra del Rio (727) 452 2900

MicheleLambertArtist@gmail.com



"The 1920s Downtown New Orleans" ~Michele Lambert

 

On Current view at the Seasoned en Vieux exhibition at the Galerie 1501 at 1501 Canal Street in New Orleans through January 14, 2015

 

 

Dancers~ Michele Lambert

 

 

 

 

"I Cry for My City"~Michele Lambert