Louisiana Cultural Vistas - Winter 2007 - (Page 19)

The Spirit Returns, 2007 Acrylic on canvas 48”x60” Collection of the Artist odors permeated the air, coffee being made, hops from the many beer breweries, crab boil, gumbo filé — different. When I was 14, dad was transferred back to New Orleans for good. The difference that was New Orleans became the norm for me: shotgun houses, box steps, corner bar/restaurants, raw oysters, it all became a part of me. Childhood and memories of youth haunted me during those few months after Katrina, driving around New Orleans photographing the devastation. Block after block of smashed cars, downed telephone poles, and the sheer redundancy of the imagery made me numb. I couldn’t compose through the viewfinder of my camera. It would be time to quit for the day. I took one last trip into the Lower Ninth Ward where so much dramatic devastation had taken place — houses atop houses, cars flipped on their backs, steps leading to a pile of rubble. Almost all those visual reminders of Katrina’s wrath and government ineptitude were gone — demolished! Summer weeds and grass began covering the bare ground. I really didn’t need to see anymore destruction; that first day’s encounter with Katrina’s fury was still clear in my mind’s eye. The brown haze in the sky, mud-caked streets, and pitiful, lonely buildings stood like the elderly, frail and desperate. And everywhere, silence hung in your head like the inside of a tomb. I have worked on these Katrina paintings for almost two years and doubt I will do anymore. Hopefully, the coroner’s report on New Orleans will not be “death by drowning” and the old city will survive and be great once again. Still, a person, or a place, can die from neglect and abuse. LCV Katrina—Days of Terror, Months of Anguish: Paintings b y Rolland Golden is on view at the New Orleans Museum of Art through February 17, 2008. The exhibit is accompanied by an illustrated catalog, which was made possible, in part, through the generosity of Edward and Betty Lou Furash. The catalog is available in the NOMA Museum Shop: www.noma.org. Winter 2007-08/LOUISIANA ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES 19 http://www.noma.org

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Louisiana Cultural Vistas - Winter 2007

Louisiana Cultural Vistas - Winter 2007 Contents Friends Editor’s Column Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities Katrina: Days of Terror, Months of Anguish Paintings by Rolland Golden The Historic New Orleans Collection The Great Ouachita River Flood of 1932 Jazz Notes Louisiana Architecture Louisiana: Where Land Meets Water Louisiana State Museum Through A Lens Sharply: An Interview with Michael Lewis MR-GO: A “miracle” mired in controversy Louisiana Foodways Louisiana Association of Museums New Orleans: An Autopsy Bookstand Sound Advice Forum

Louisiana Cultural Vistas - Winter 2007

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