Southern Breeze 2008 Spring Issue

Vergie Banks is a sculptor, jewelry-maker, and self-taught painter whose Cubistic paintings have promising mainstream potential. Her trademark ‘red tricycle’ subject has been optioned for an animated feature by the Rugrats team at Nickelodeon, and her jazz and blues paintings are prominently displayed at Bailey’s Seafood and Grill, a fine-dining restaurant in Lafayette renowned for its gumbo. If you visit Cajun Country in search of art, there are plenty of places to find it. Laid-back, pedestrian-friendly downtown Lafayette has a burgeoning gallery scene. Art walks, which take place the second Saturday of each month, combine new studio exhibitions with a hip, yet family-friendly social scene. Sans Souci Fine Crafts Gallery is the ultimate gift shop for artsy souvenirs. Home of the Louisiana Crafts Guild, the quaint, rose-colored 1885 house sells high-quality crafts such as jewelry, handbags, textiles, pottery, and home-and-garden décor. Young entrepreneur Jennifer Grand’s Grand Contemporary Gallery, which recently relocated to a new space downtown, is the city’s newest upscale gallery. She showcases the area’s top artists, including Brian LaFaye, Steve Schneider, Mary Ellen Leger, and John Hathorn, an abstract painter and painting coordinator in ULL’s Department of Visual Arts. Lafayette’s premier arts venue is the Acadiana Center for the Arts. Changing exhibitions are featured in the elegant mainfloor galleries, while the lower level—a former bank vault— makes a surprisingly urban-chic setting for parties and other social events. Art abounds beyond Lafayette as well. Along the quaint main street of nearby New Iberia (a stone’s throw from the historic Shadows-on-the-Teche sugar plantation and mansion) Melissa Bonin’s gallery is awash with her large, richly hued and intriguingly atmospheric landscape paintings of the Louisiana countryside. Just down the street, you can feast your eyes on the acclaimed folk-art paintings of the late Clementine Hunter (1886-1988), an ancestor of local slaves, whose artwork is the inspiration behind Wayne Peltier’s upscale restaurant, Clementine Dining & Spirits. But for the most unique art-meets-food experience, head back to Lafayette and the Blue Dog Café. World-renowned artist George Rodrigue, whose cartoonish blue dog paintings have garnered him fame and fortune as well as successful studios from Carmel, California and Aspen, Colorado to New Orleans and his native Lafayette. At the popular Blue Dog Café (whose tongue-in-cheek motto is “Sit. Stay. Eat.”), diners can nosh on Cajun specialties amidst more than 150 paintings and oversized dog sculptures, representing the largest private collection of Rodrigue’s art in the country. Now that’s an unexpected treat. Regional artwork is always on display at Grand Contemporary Gallery (top), the Acadiana Center for the Arts (center), and the Blue Dog Café (bottom), all in Lafayette—but don’t forget to venture out to surrounding communities as well! great timing If you can, time your visit for late April to attend the annual Festival International de Louisiane, the largest free Francophone (French-speaking) festival in the United States. www.festivalinternational.com Spring 2008 47 http://www.festivalinternational.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Southern Breeze 2008 Spring Issue

Editor's Letter Contributor Gumbo Seen & Heard Coastal Calendar Storefronts - Keepin' it Reel Sweet Dreams - Grand Hotel Art of Living - Marking Time Fixtures - A Fitting End Our Backyard - Reasonable Drought Make Yourself at Home - Light up Your Life The Southern Breeze Hot List Unexpected Destin-ation Visual Zydeco We're an American Band The Good Life From Halter Tops to Maternity Tops Reader Services Cheers - Lazy Libations Dish - Mississippi Yearning Chef's Table - Welcome to The Doll House Let's Eat - Sunrise Sensations Last Bite

For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.