Newsletter
September 2008

On Labor Day September 1st hurricane Gustav roared ashore near Cocodrie Louisiana and proceeded to track directly over our home in Houma, Louisiana. Winds of over 100 mph battered Houma and took out power throughout the town. Fortunately we had left and were unharmed and upon our return 8 days later found our home pretty much in tact, with power restored and with very little damage. In my mind I thought of the itinerate farmers in “The Grapes of Wrath”, who migrated from the dust bowl of Oklahoma to California with all they owned in and on a beat up Model A Ford pick-up. I had my old 4-Runner with my wife and dog buddy, packed with all our valuables including computer and camera equipment, and my son Brian following behind in his car, uncertain as to what would happen at home. Fortunately the predicted 15 foot storm surge did not materialize, we were fortunate indeed, just a lot of wind, downed trees and power lines and lots of roofs destroyed. Ten days later, Hurricane Ike reared its ugly head, while the storm hit over 300 miles to our West. There was serious flooding in the southern reaches of our parish effecting as many people as the hurricane that directly hit us. Again fortunately we escaped the flooding. It’s been a very difficult month, I’m ready for things to return to normal.

The August New Orleans Arts Market was first delayed and then cancelled due to the storm. So this coming weekend the Bywater Art Market is the first Market I’ve done since July. Bywater is followed by The New Orleans Arts Market the week after, the Red River Revel the week after that, and The Bayou City Art Festival in Houston the week after I return from the Revel (yes they’ve already emailed that the show is still planned to go on). So September and October will be very busy months. I hope to see you at one of those shows. Fortunately between storms I’ve been busily creating inventory, with lots of new work and older work that I’m printing for the first time. In addition, I’ve done an 8x10 book of photographs which is available for purchase. The book, On Swamps & Levees, includes 74 of my photographs—intended as a collection of my work in Louisiana for those who do not have any wall space—ideal for a gift item. I’ve included many of my bird and landscape photographs as well as some aerial shots of our disappearing marshlands. I have examples of the book which I will be bringing to the shows, but currently only offering On Swamps & Levees for sale at the blurb website. The book was created before the September storms and as luck would have it, I included shots taken near Gustav’s landfall spot of Cocodrie, those shots taken in 2006, assuredly bear no relationship to what is now there, underscoring our need for serious efforts to restore our wetlands and to provide our inhabitants with flood protection.