Rain knocked out the end-of-day crowd at the Columbia Art and Folk Festival in Caldwell Parish, Oct. 10.

This post includes reviews on the Columbia Art Fest,  Doyle Jeter at the Masur and Robin Hood with the Young Troupe at Strauss Theater.

My first point of interest was the 54th Annual Columbia Art Folk Festival in, of course, Columbia, La. I’d post a link to the festival’s website, but there ain’t one. I drove just over an hour from Rayville with my nine-year-old, Nika, to go check out the festival. Given the location, I figured this would be more of a crafts and food event, and I was right. By the time we arrived at about 3pm, the day had turned gray and rain was spattering the street. Since the fair only went until 5pm that day anyway, a few vendors had already begun packing up, and the remaining bands were canceled.

That didn’t stop us, though. We put up our hoods and marched right in and took a quick glance down both directions of the street to see what was up. The whole fair runs about four blocks or so right down the center of the town, which has about 10,000+ folks according to Wiki. I imagine this festival is a pretty big deal for the locals, particularly since it’s been going on annually for half a century.

Jack Thompson works on an Adirondack chair.

The crowd had cleared out but we were able to talk with a few remaining vendors such as J.V.Crain of Crain’s Wood Designs, and also Carmen Head and Tonyah Meredith of Bella’s Boutique. (Again, no online links that I could find.) These folks were sticking it out until the end, which was lucky for me. I was really fascinated by the woodwork by Crain. He took the time to explain to me how his beautifully smooth and tri-toned bowls are crafted. At the Bella’s Boutique tent, which looked like a gypsy encampment with all the tinkling jewelry and clothing billowing about in the breeze, Head and Meredith told me that they were excited about opening their new store in Columbia because there aren’t otherwise a lot of places to shop there for hand-crafted clothing.

Tonyah Meredith, Carmen Head, and Johnnie Fallin of Bella's Boutique at the Columbia Art and Folk Festival in Caldwell Parish.

Other parts of the street were likely a little more enticing when they were busier. There were food tents selling selections such as pork skins, seafood gumbo and beignets — I could go for some of those right now, actually — plus craft tents with more selections of clothing, small home decorations and furniture. I saw one tent that had some some paintings from a small local art guild.

Avery Bailey, five, hangs out at the end of a rainy day at the Columbia Art and Folk Festival.

There was a pleasant atmosphere around all this despite the light rain. I had the feeling that the festival was probably the only thing happening in the area and pretty active during its sunnier moments. I caught a few shots of kids goofing around, plus one of a very cute little girl under an umbrella, which was a nice way to wrap up the trip. I’d run down there again next year if I’m still around, and would take both my nine-year-old and my four-year-old girls with me. I think they’d enjoy it.

And now, onward …

The Masur Museum hosted a talk with local artist Doyle Jeter on Oct. 13. The rain continued bearing down on us all this week, and this evening’s event found me driving the entire distance from Rayville to Monroe in a sleet, then dashing from my car into the back reception area of the Masur just after 7 p.m. to catch Jeter’s talk. I wasn’t sure what exactly he was going to be talking about, but I had a few people tell me I should catch him, so there I was. My ex-wife, Anna, is a painter and was also there with our four-year-old, Emma, who commandeered my notepad and pen to keep herself occupied. I kept having to take it from her to write notes, which became scattered between her pen images of angel people.

Emma's masterpiece. Note the freehand style. The carefully placed rosy cheeks. Genius, really.

Printmaker Doyle Jeter talks with a viewer.

Gaining some quick background on Jeter, I picked this up from the Masur’s site:

Doyle Jeter is founder of Enoch’s Irish Pub, the Eye-20 Group, the 10/20/40 Group, and the Northeast Louisiana Celtic Festival. He has a master’s degree in printmaking from New Mexico Highlands University, and his work can be found in private and public collections, including the Museum of Fine Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico. His most recent printmaking project is three editions of prints by Lynda Benglis. Works from this collaboration will be on view at Arender Gallery starting October 1.

Work by Lynda Benglis and printmaker Doyle Jeter at the Masur Museum, Oct. 13.

I didn’t know anything about printmaking as an art form, so I was curious to see what Jeter was up to. Printmaking … that’s like screenprinting or something, ya? Or printing photographs? I know all about that. Well, it turns out that it’s none of the above. I’m still not entirely sure I understand it, and I may look up more about the process later if I have time between this blog and everything else, but for now, and after Jeter’s talk, I know that it’s an incredibly time-consuming process that nets the artist one, unique image on paper or canvas, or whatever medium he or she chooses. And it’s time-consuming, as in 40 to 60 hours to create one piece that looks, to my photographer’s eye, like a photograph.

I was a little flabbergasted at the idea of spending that much time on one image. I spend my days shooting and sorting through hundreds, if not thousands, of “prints” of my own. But printmakers such as Jeter would likely be just as taken aback at any close comparison between photography and printmaking. I was comforted to read the Wiki description of the difference, though, which says the printmaker creates not a “print” but more of an “impression.”

This fits with what Jeter explained to the crowd of about 40. We all listened attentively as he told us many stories of his youth and upbringing in different parts of the world, his time in college, and how he came into art, and his thoughts on it, and some more stories of his family and trips he had taken. Jeter said he feels at home here, as well as in New York, Ireland and Puerto Rico, having spent various times of his life in those places.

“Music played a big role, too,” he said. “I remember my mom dancing the flamenco in the house with a rose in her mouth … I think everything that happens in life goes right into your art. The themes come back around.

“Art isn’t the critics or what people say about it. It’s sitting in your studio creating and reaching that moment, that spark of life, when you suddenly know you’ve hit it.”

He spent a few minutes explaining his technique for printmaking, using three pieces of his work as examples, and then spent his remaining time talking about a fourth piece he included from Lynda Benglis, an artist he has great affection and respect for, and who he worked with for some time. As he put it, this is a woman who, even in her sixties, can simply come along and strike at a canvas with a green crayon, and create a masterpiece.

Given the time involved in crafting one single print via the printmaking method, I’m not inclined to take it up myself, based on what Jeter discussed. But there’s something to the physicality of it that I appreciate. As a photographer, I don’t get my hands dirty in the art — there’s no steel to melt, paint to splatter, wood to carve. It’s all visual. In that respect, as I listened to Jeter talk about working “in the dirt,” so-to-speak, with Benglis, I envied the realness of what he experienced, as opposed to the digitized art form I now work in.

I spoke with Jeter afterwards for a few minutes and found out that he’s the founder of the annual Celtic Festival in West Monroe. I’ve been planning to see this festival since I first heard about it, so it was neat to meet the fellow who started it.

The Sheriff of Nottingham gets waylaid by gypsies.

That’s that … next was the Young Troupe’s performance of an energetic and updated version of Robin Hood at the Strauss Theater.

I’m planning to videotape a performance of this for the theater, and also to put a few clips on ArtNELA. Before I can do that, I have to know my cues, so I went to check out the student performance at 11 a.m., Oct. 21.

I was surprised at the energy of this gang of about forty or fifty kids, and even more so at the ability of director Steve Barton to corral it all into a show that wants to leap off the stage and into your lap but manages to keep itself just barely in check. Also, I expected quietly-voiced dialogue by shy kids, but heck no, for the most part these guys and girls fairly shouted their lines to the audience of school students and received a good deal of laughter and applause in return.

The age range of the performers goes from about six to seventeen.

There is a large cast and so much general running about in this show that it’s impossible to take it all in, but the leading actors and actresses do a fine job of keeping the attention where it belongs. Beaux Coleman as Robin Hood seems to be enjoying himself immensely both as a character and an actor, and milks his multiple introductions, which each come with their own soundtrack. Dialogue from his arch-enemy The Sheriff of Nottingham, played by Nathaneal Medlin, is offered with a nonstop, conceited ridiculousness that becomes really, really, really funny simply by virtue of its boisterous continuation. His endless, high-pitched and very unexpected yelp as he discovers Robin in the forest had the kids roaring in laughter.

The hippies go transcendental on Robin Hood at the Strauss Theater, Oct. 21.

A nod goes to Katherine Klagholz for her role as everyone’s favorite maid in distress — at least until she wallops Robin to both sides of the stage and back — and to Maddie Snead, who was very articulate and convincing as the dancing, accented Gypsy who leads the Sheriff temporarily away from Robin, and to Jacob Branson for his appropriately whiny role as the Sheriff’s sidekick, and also to Alyssa Leader who gave us just as spirited a performance as we saw from her in her minor role in Strauss’s Modern Millie recently.

I was quite amused at the shenanigans of the cast overall, as they came into and out of the various scenes, usually with a great deal of running or shouting, but never out of control (an important point). It seemed to me that Barton decided to just favor the group’s energy over the possibility that kids might trip over themselves and come crashing down the stairs at some point while entering from all corners of the theater. I think this was the right choice. The activity and energy really added a lot to the event and gave all the kids in the audience an endless amount of enjoyment, while also keeping the cast very involved physically, a necessity for youth productions.

On more than one occasion, for instance, cast members on stage would point in fright above the audience, and sure enough, the sheriff’s posse would come charging right down from the upper level, or a crowd would come barreling in from the wings. A well-chosen rock music soundtrack overlaid this occasionally, but not too loudly.

There is an amusing turn, too, from a small group of hippies that seem to have time-warped into Sherwood Forest.

The set never changes but serves its purpose well by allowing lots of room for the kids and few distractions, while also giving the audience an idea of three separate locations that include the facade of a two-towered castle. Music that overlaid various scenes was occasionally so low that it just sounded accidental, but I preferred that to the alternative, and otherwise I had no problem either hearing the kids or the music at the right moments.

Director Steve Barton talks to the audience after the Oct. 10 performance of Robin Hood.

No Robin Hood production would be complete without some swordplay and general ruckus. The choreography here between Robin and the Sheriff is handled excellently — adults can see there’s little danger of the kids getting hurt, and at the same time, it’s actually a little frightening to see them going at it and throwing themselves around. The ensemble even gets involved in the mayhem toward the end, and it looks like a  giant barroom fight, then everyone stops and, of course, Robin emerges victorious with a glaring grin. The whole bit made me remember bouncing crazily on a trampoline with my friends as a kid, pretending to be karate experts and doing back-kick somersaults. Fun and a little nutty, really, is what it was — and that’s what this show is.

Recommended for kids, for sure, I’d say six-years and older. I’ll be taking my nine-year-old to see it this weekend.

For info, call the theater @ 318-323-6681.

Next post on ArtNELA: “Strike Up The Band” at Biedenharn Gardens brings in some class-act voices for a tribute to Great Depression-era musicals. Catch the article, photos and video here shortly, as well as in the Nov. issue of Delta Style.

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ULM instructors and performers at "An Afternoon in Vienna" at Biedenharn Gardens, Aug. 30. left to right: Claire Vangelisti, asst. professor of vocal studies, Deborah McClung-Gillory, associate professor, piano dept., Dr. Lynn Clark, asst. professor of curriculum, and Dr. Mark Clark, associate professor and director of opera and musical theater.

MONROE, La. | 8/30/09
Instructors from ULM performed 19th century operettas, songs, piano and string classics for An Afternoon in Vienna in the Biedenharn Fountain Room. I unfortunately missed the event, but made the tail end of the reception, where I also missed the Viennese sachertorte, but did manage a few guest shots. Events Coordinator Abbey Ebarb said there was a standing-room only crowd and they even had to turn a few people away. The museum is planning ahead for An Afternoon in Paris, April 11, 2010, from 4-5 pm.

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We went up in the nearby building to get an overhead shot of the festivities.

MONROE, La. 8/29/09

I made it downtown to see Indiana Jones and The Raiders of the Lost Ark last week. Classic Steven Spielberg at his best, if I may say.

I also went to see District 9 at the Cinemark in West Monroe, which has really nothing to do with this article, but it was a great movie, too, and I just want to plug it, because if you liked Indiana Jones or the last Star Trek, you’ll probably like District 9.

Now, you may ask yourself, where in the heck is there a movie theater downtown?

Indiana Jones. Even better than Han Solo.

There is no movie theater, and that’s the beauty of it. This is a once-a-month, outdoor event, appropriately called “Downtown Cinema” — lower your speakers before you hit that link or you’ll get surprised by the audio commercial — that was cooked up by the youngish folks over at Portico Church in Monroe, who like a ton of other people in the area, needed something fun and free to do with a family on a Saturday night.

The church is moving and is in the process of purchasing a six-story building downtown and renovating it. In front of this building is a somewhat random patch of green that covers about a quarter of the block. Volunteers at the church got creative and ended up with the idea to bring in live music, popcorn and drinks, and a classic movie for an evening — all free and open to the public.

Portico Church volunteers who helped to organize the event.

These kind of events always stun me for a second when I see them. Who does anything for free? There’s got to be a catch, right?

But there’s no catch. You just show up with your posse, enough chairs or blankets to sit on, go grab some snacks from “The Popcorn Girl,” Janelle Briggs, a bottle of cold water, and enjoy yourself while the kids run themselves ragged on the grass. Forgot bug spray? No worries, because the church sets up a table with about twenty spray cans for general use.

If you’ve got a few bucks on you — and this is well worth it — a special treat comes in the form of hand-made ice cream from Maggie Moo’s Ice Cream and Treatery.

Kelly Aaen of Maggie Moo's Ice Cream hands out a cone of handmade ice cream at the Downtown Cinema. I highly suggest trying a scoop of this stuff at the Pecanland Mall.

Owner Kelly Aaen was there with a freezer-full of confections, and she gave me a scoop of the strawberry. “It’s the best ice cream you’ll ever taste,” she said confidently. And she was right. I’ll be bringing the kids to the Pecanland mall location soon to see what they think.

Finding the cinema in my car was a discovery. I felt like Indiana Jones himself as I drove around downtown looking for it. The streets were quiet, silent, dead as an Aztec city, and then suddenly, turn a corner and out of nowhere, lights and activity and music and over a hundred people. I had found the ancient temple, and the natives were celebrating … !

I didn’t swing in like Indiana, though, I just walked over with a pad and camera.

This night, the live music was courtesy of Kyle Craft and his band, and they were rockin’ pretty nicely with some originals and cover tunes under a white tent.

Since the band was the only tent-covered part of the event, I asked volunteer organizer Erin Stokes what the plan was if it started to rain.

This crew actually brought out a two-piece sofa, and said they might work on bringing out a whole living room at some point.

“We pray,” she laughed. “Actually, we haven’t really gotten to that yet. We just put the whole thing together, and so far we’ve been lucky. We wanted to give people something to do, and to use this lot, which is really the only green space here … the downtown area has so much potential. We’re all volunteers, and we just decided that rather than wait for the city to do something, we’d put it together ourselves.”

She’s not kidding — they really did put it all together, even down to constructing the 10′ x 14′ projector screen.

“We didn’t have the funds to buy one, so some guys from the church just built it,” Stokes said.

The perfect weather that evening was complimented by Christmas lights and Japanese lanterns strung on the trees, plus a few citronella candles on the ground to keep bugs out.

Not a bad way to spend an evening, really.

In the back of the lot, Tommy Perkins and company actually brought out a two-piece sofa and we’re taking their loungin’ quite seriously, more or less.

“We had some friends in town, and they helped us take this stuff out here. It’s to show our support for the church, because they’re doing a lot to revitalize the area, and this seemed like a fun way to do it and get some use of this old furniture,” he said.

“We’ve been talking about increasing this until we bring out an entire living room.”

That would be something to see. There used to be this nifty little movie theater in New Orleans that had sofas and recliners set up in small rooms where you could watch movies. It was great, very artsy, but it didn’t last long because most artists, of course, don’t have a lot of money to support such things. This would be a nice substitute. Maybe I’ll just haul a cot out there next month.

The first movie was shown in June. The next one, The Sandlot, is scheduled for Sept. 26, with a baseball theme running throughout the event, so bring your caps and baseball mitts, ’cause you never know when a game might start up. After that, there will be one more show around Christmas, and then it will start up again next summer.

I asked Stokes how they choose the movies.

“We shoot for the 25-35 year-old demographic,” she said. “We sit around a table and think up classic movies that everyone likes from the 80’s or 90’s. Raiders was tied with Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, but we couldn’t get the rights to that one. We actually buy the rights to show the movies — it’s a few hundred dollars for the weekend. We try to keep everything PG. It turns out that PG-13 wasn’t created until after Raiders came out, but we didn’t know that until later.”

They took care of it effectively, though. At that evening’s show, at certain points in the movie when it was required, they simply muted the language. It provided for sudden, but funny breaks, such as when Marion — played by Karen Allen, who was unlucky enough to get roped into that last miserable installment of Indiana Jones — decides to verbally karate-chop Indiana by yelling obscenities at him for two minutes. All we heard was, “Indiana Jones, you no-good …” and then she was yelling, silently, which got a laugh out of the audience.

Roy and Virginia White drove all the way down from Arkansas for their 40th Anniversary just to join the fun.

Stokes said funding is handled by the church and whatever donations they receive, and that everyone, including the band members, volunteers their time. They are also working on a “Christmas on the River” event with the Department of Economic Development.

Downtown Cinema is held at the corner of Desiard and Jackson Streets in Monroe.

Published in Delta Style, Sept. issue.

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The first stop brings me to the Mystic Art Gallery.

MONROE, La. 08/06/09

Soon after I moved from N’awlins last year, one of the first artistic events I heard about here was the monthly Artcrawl in Monroe/West-Monroe. New Orleans, of course, has its share of art walks and white-linen nights and everything else. I’ve attended a few of those, either on my own time or as an intrepid reporter-on-the-street. Those events are always well-attended, through pouring rain or blazing heat, or sometimes both.

We were lucky to have some great weather for the August 6th Artwalk here, though. I was looking forward to this as a first taste of what Monroe/West-Monroe has to offer in the way of art. Now, I had snuck down to 2nd Street earlier that week just to see what might lay ahead, and I wasn’t too enthused with what I saw. It didn’t seem like there was much going on that afternoon. All the studios were closed. I peeked in a few windows, and it looked like they were in the process of moving.

Well, I mused, maybe that’s just the way it is. You can’t expect some sort of booming art scene like what you see in a cultural melting pot like New Orleans.

So, I attended the Artwalk a few days later with my hopes somewhat toned down … and I was pretty quickly handed my hoity-toityness on a platter.

The main parking areas had been filled up. I found a spot down the street from the Coda bar, which as it turns out is a pretty popular hangout during the Artwalk. I headed straight for the farthest gallery on the map: the Mystic Art Gallery, owned by Andrea May. The place was fairly packed with over 40 people in the main room, and more spilling into the adjoining galleries. Her centerpiece for the evening was a large sun-like image that already had a red sticker on the bottom corner. I didn’t get the name of the piece but the photo of it speaks pretty well, I think. She made a good choice, and so did whoever purchased it. To the left of this work and centered in the gallery was cellist and West Monroe College graduate Hannah Underwood, intently playing various classical selections from a music book. Hannah, by the way, says she’s going to LSU in the Fall, where I assume she’ll continue playing the cello.

Summer Bennett, Kate McClelland, artisit Leah Reitzell and her husband Mac, at the Artcrawl in Monroe, April 6.

I was taken by Andrea May’s work, which covered one wall of the studio. I don’t know if this is just a phase of painting or if the work I saw was representative of everything she’s doing currently, but it was the kind of textured, stark work that I would probably put in my own home, if I had one, right there in that big room … right. Anyway, I’m not a painter, so rather than make feeble attempts at describing the work, I’ll just post the photos and let you decide.

Other sections of the gallery had paintings by Lou Kavanaugh, Leah Reitzell, a group of young artists, and sculpture by Renee Parnell.

I wanted to take sculpture when I was in college and still regret not being able to do it. The class only accepted nine students a year, and only in my last year did I luck into a schedule that allowed me to take it, and that year, the instructor broke up with the other art instructor he had been dating at the college, and moved to California to shack up with some svelte actress who played a Romulan on the Star Trek Enterprise TV series.

"Hi-Boy" by Lou Kavanaugh, at the Mystic Art Gallery.

Needless to say, I never took sculpture, which was possibly why I stopped longingly around the piece by Parnell a little longer than I might have otherwise. I stood out with a fat camera around my neck, and so visitor Beverly Comeaux introduced herself to me along with her 92-year-old mother, Ruby Albritton, and Albritton’s niece and the artist Lou Kavanaugh. They made a nice triplet, and gained a photo.

I went from there to talk with artist Leah Reitzell, who was with her two friends, Summer Bennett and Kate McClelland, and her husband, Mac.

This piece by Renee Parnell reminded me of my sculpture instructor from college who ran off with a sexy Romulan ... that was my connection, anyway.

“I’ve had some shows in Ruston, but this is my first time for the Artcrawl,” she told me. “I’m very excited.” She did seem happy about it, so I took advantage of her contagious smile and grabbed a shot of her with the assembly. She introduced me to photographer Christi Jones, who mentioned the “Heart Gallery” of photos of orphaned children set up at the Banquet Room in the Ouachita National Bank Building. I put it on my do-to list and moved on to the Arender Gallery next door, where I met photographers Brad Arender and Kate Hilburn.

Hilburn was the focus of Brad’s gallery, with her exhibit, “Pentimento: The Champs Elysees-Clemenceau.” Her photographs of graffiti-covered walls in a Paris underground tunnel looked to me at first as though they were paintings or color pencil drawings. The big clue was Hilburn casually meandering around with a pro camera in her hand, talking to visitors. That’s usually a dead giveaway that someone’s a photographer, ya know.

"Pentimento: The Champs Elysees-Clemenceau, metro wall #3" by Kate Hilburn. It's not a painting, okay? It's a photo of a Paris underground tunnel. I knew that.

Hilburn, who frequents Paris each year, said she made a point of printing the work on a unique, textured paper that mimicked the texture of the environment where she shot the photos, and to that purpose, she also framed a few images on brushed iron. She has been working as an artist full-time since the 90’s, with much of her time dedicated to the “Beating Hearts” exhibit with friend Terrie Autrey. That exhibit highlights the plight of victims of domestic violence and has received worldwide recognition.

Photographers Brad Arender and Kate Hilburn.

Visitors ponder works by Emory Nolan at the Becton Gallery, during the Artcrawl in Monroe, Aug. 6.

At the Becton Gallery across the street, musicians Vince Chow, James Simpson and Allison Huff played folk tunes, while visitors enjoyed paintings by Emory Nolan and gallery owner Margaret Becton. This gallery, like the others, was comfortably full with about 40 or more people, and had a few snack trays and drinks available.

Coming from New Orleans, I found Nolan’s subdued work familiar, with southern negro and music themes. Becton’s work, displayed near the wall of windows near the street, was a nice balance with its bright colors. I didn’t realize until I went in for a closer look that Becton’s texture was literally the texture from extra material, since it appears that she creates collages and then paints over that.

Visitors enjoy wine and art at the Becton Gallery during the Artcrawl in Monroe, Aug. 6.

The Heart Gallery around the corner consisted of sixteen portraits of children awaiting adoption. This is a volunteer project including local photographers such as Christi Jones and Joli Livaudais, among others, sponsored by the Center for Children and Families, Inc.

I headed over to Joli Livaudais Studio a block away. I had wanted to meet Joli for some time—she seems to be very successful at what she does, and being in the business myself, sort of, I’m always curious to meet photographers who actually make a living at it. Her studio is possibly the nicest photo studio I’ve ever been in, not that I’ve been in that many of them, but I enjoyed the wood floors and ceiling fans, and overall bronze-colored light that seemed to mimic that “golden hour” we photographers talk about.

Livaudais Studio might be the nicest photo studio I've ever been in. *sigh* Maybe someday I'll have one like this.

The right-side wall here featured a set of panoramic, spliced photographs by Jenny Burnham, while on the other side of the studio was a somewhat interactive set of photos titled “Introspective Mystery,” by Lauren Ward.

"Introspective Mystery," an set of photographs by Lauren Ward, at Livaudais Studio, had curious visitors enthralled with turning pages. It looks like a good way to read a book, anyway. No more of that sitting-up-in-bed stuff, just nail it to the wall.

Livaudais mentioned that she and some friends are discussing starting a monthly coffeeshop meet-and-greet for photographers around the area. I think this would be spectacular; in fact, I think something like this for media reps, artists, and musicians would be in order.

Now, if I just had that big house …

The next Artcrawl is scheduled for Oct. 1. For more info, check out the website, or shoot them an email: info@dowtowngallerycrawl.com.

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