On the road with family: New Orleans

In 1994 I went to the NCECA Conference in New Orleans. It was a last minute thing: I was newly separated from my husband and high school sweetheart, and hadn't expected to go until my father gave me the money for airfare. But it was too late to get a hotel room, and everyone I knew who was going was either staying at the Y (which was full) or couch surfing with friends. I called every potter I knew, and finally a friend who had moved to Northwestern PA to take a lab tech job at Edinboro University told me he wasn't going, but a group of students were, and he would ask the girls if I could stay with them. They said yes, and I had a place to stay.

The second night of the conference, the girls, seeing I was on my own, invited me to come out to dinner with them. The group of 5 guys and 4 girls had picked up a few more friends, some alumni now living in the south, including one 'lounge lizard' guy who tried to chat me up. He looked greasy and had a whole list of pick-up lines. I gave him very short answers and he gave up. We all walked through the Quarter until we found a restaurant that had room for a dozen people, and sat down to dinner. The man next to me got up to go out on the balcony, and I overheard the man seated on the other side telling his friends (including the lizard) how his current girlfriend was making him a hysteric. I interrupted and said to this cute, tall guy, You have to have a uterus to be a hysteric, that's where the term hysterectomy comes from ... He smiled at me, and said, I keep a spare one in the garage. I thought he was funny, he thought I was pretty. The lizard tried to warn him off, saying Dude, she's an Ice Queen. But Michael didn't pay him any attention.

Within an hour Michael and I were pals, within 24 hours we had our first date, to an art opening. 15 months later, we moved to New Orleans from opposite ends of the country.

It's now been 14 years since I met the funny and cute guy from Pennsylvania with a sense of humor, and we are now married, with two lovely daughters, a house, a studio ... and every day I am glad we met.


Now

This is my first time returning to New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina. So many things have changed. The funky house where Michael and I lived (600 sq. feet, 2 stories with 1.5 bedrooms and 1.5 bath and a washer and dryer, and one end of the house was at a 45 degree angle), well, it doesn't exist any more. Not even a little.
See that fence with grass in front of it? That was the southeastern wall of our apartment. Somewhere under the debris and overgrown greenery is the brick sidewalk. Our bedroom looked onto the church at the right, and the columned house in the background center was the flop house that I watched burn down one winter. A firefighter died when the roof collapsed. It was an arson fire, set by the big man who had lived there, the same man who yelled to me "hey baby, I'll be your warlock" when I walked down the street in a black dress and motorcycle boots. What a neighborhood. Somewhere I have a still from a Jim Jarmusch film with our house in it (from a different angle, though). I will try to post that another time for comparison.


We didn't drive around much, but even the little bit I saw has changed. St. Charles has fewer oak trees, the old neighborhood is much nicer than it used to be. Many of the old mansions have been totally rehabbed, and the area feels more friendly and kept than before.


But my reason for being in New Orleans was for a show of my work at docs Gallery. I have been showing at docs since 1996, and I love the gallery. I love Richard, the gallery director, and David, his partner. I sometimes think Richard hasn't forgiven us for leaving New Orleans in 1999, but I still feel it was the right thing to do.

So this year NCECA was supposed to return to New Orleans, and Richard had planned a show of the three ceramic artists in his stable, myself, Beverly and Mark. When NCECA moved the conference to Pittsburgh instead, Richard asked if I would do a solo show, but with a baby on the way I knew that wouldn't work, so I agreed to a 2-person.

I saw so many familiar faces at the opening, Marla and Raymond, Ray, Lori, Robin and Christopher, Beverly, Laura and husband Doug and their two children.


This was my favorite piece, "Self-Portrait with Ermine" based on the Leonardo da Vinci painting. It sold. So did one other piece, "Buck" to Marla. Marla took this picture of me with Sabine and the Ermine piece.
Yes, that's a glass of wine. And mommy looks all flushed.

My friend and fellow ceramic artist Beverly, with her friend Tom, and Sabine.

David, gallery co-owner, with Arabella and Sabine. I think Sabine is looking for Beverly.