Louisiana Cultural Vistas - Summer 2008 - (Page 21)

engaged in spectral activities. Two women chat, a lady walks her small dog, children play catch, and a pair of spirits lounge in a pink tomb. Thomas’s magenta signature appears bottom right with a circle surrounding the interwoven letters “JT.” The Saints Go Marching In, another Thomas piece in the holdings of The Collection, explores the same theme. The medium, oil on linen, allows for much finer detail. Again the scene takes place under a full moon on a cloudy night, but this time the ghosts are involved in a funeral and second-line parade. As the clock nears midnight, a casket with six pallbearers leads a parade complete with a grand marshal and a full brass band. The clothing of the spirits suggests they lived in various historical eras; some women wear bustled dresses and hold parasols, while others wear miniskirts and low-cut blouses. Each tomb is labeled with a family name, including the Thomas tomb, in front of which stands an immortelle inscribed with the artist’s signature and date of the work: “J. Thomas Mex. 77.” The near-death experience in World War II left Thomas’s body scarred. He lost much of one hand, and his face was visibly changed, even after 54 surgeries. As a result, he developed a sense of gallows humor and the unique vision of the afterlife seen in his whimsical depictions of the dead. In his work, Thomas suggests that ghosts on earth are not concerned with haunting the living but continue to carry on meaningful lives and maintain relationships in a parallel reality. Thomas’s brush with death appears to have revealed to him with reassuring clarity that our long-gone ancestors are content and we need not fear the reaper. top: James Thomas at work in his studio in Eronguaricuaro, Michoacán, by an unknown photographer, ca. 1972. gift of Zella Funck left: St. Louis #1 Cemetery by James Thomas, designer, and Bundy Illsley, weaver, wool, 1977 Thomas suggests that ghosts on earth are not concerned with haunting the living but continue to carry on meaningful lives and maintain relationships in a parallel reality. Summer 2008/LOUISIANA ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES 21

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Louisiana Cultural Vistas - Summer 2008

Louisiana Cultural Vistas - Summer 2008 Contents Friends Editor’s Column Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities George Rodrigue’s Louisiana: Cajuns, Blue Dogs & Beyond Katrina The Historic New Orleans Collection After The Flood Faubourg Marigny: The Creole “Suburb” Preserving New Orleans Jazz, One Generation at a Time: Conversation & Music with Tom Sancton Louisiana Foodways Louisiana Architecture Baton Rouge Photographs, 1863-1910 Jazz Notes The Ogden Museum of Southern Art Louisiana Association of Museums Nature of the “Beast” Louisiana State Museum Bookstand Sound Advice Forum

Louisiana Cultural Vistas - Summer 2008

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