Posted: 03/07/07

Seeing is believing
Art show to benefit New Orleans visits Vermont

Katie Colleran | contributing writer
kcolleran@smcvt.edu

Roux is a mix of flour and fat that makes up the base of gumbo, a dish common to New Orleans. When cooking it, roux has to be watched very closely or else it will burn and be ruined.

When trying to come up with a name for her art show, Melanie Goodreaux decided on “Watch the Roux,” because she says she saw a connection between New Orleans and a food that needs constant care.

Melania Goodreaux, a 1995 graduate of St. Michael's says she saw a connection between New Orleans and a food that needs constant care. Katie Colleran, photo

“We need to keep an eye on the life, the vibrancy that’s still there,” Goodreaux says.

Representing New Orleans

Goodreaux, a playwright and 1995 graduate of St. Michael’s College, says she is not an artist, but when she decided to do something to help the people of New Orleans, she turned to art.

"I had already written a play about it,” Goodreaux says. “This was an opportunity to gather things that are significant to the people there.”

A native of New Orleans, Goodreaux says she tried to get in touch with people who had been displaced so that they could put art in the show.

“I have watched, since Katrina, how my people are being spread all over,” Goodreaux says. “I’ve seen the city as a ghost. I wanted a way for New Orleanians to present their art.”

Goodreaux says her main goal was to collect art that represents New Orleans now. She wanted people to take what they were left with after Hurricane Katrina and make something with it.

“All the work is New Orleans themed,” Goodreaux says. “You can see the effects of Katrina on some contributions. Other pieces represent the spirit that is New Orleans.”

Hurricane Katrina caused devastation to New Orleans in August 2005. A Washington Post article reported on Feb. 19, 2006 that the unofficial death toll for the New Orleans area over a year later is 1,300. More deaths are being reported every day and people continue to die from causes related to the stress of the event—hypertension, suicide, and diabetes, according to the article.

“There is a suicide epidemic and tons of other things that people don’t know because the news doesn’t have it on the agenda,” Goodreaux says.

Goodreaux says she wants people to be aware of the hurricane-related problems as well as the problems New Orleans has always dealt with.

“The devastation that happened in New Orleans has only magnified its problems,” Goodreaux says. “It has always been plagued by poverty and racism. Part of it is the government’s inability to act. They left people for five days and neglected people for years.”

Serenity now

All of the art that appears in the show was donated, Goodreaux says. Some of the pieces are just for exhibition but most of them are for sale.

“Any proceeds from the sale will go toward keeping people aware,” Goodreaux says. “They will be donated to walkin-to-New-Orleans.org. They have a Katrina help center.”

In addition, a good deal of the artwork was donated by friends, Goodreaux says.

Mark Holloway attended St. Michael’s with Goodreaux and says that when he heard about her show, he donated a photo piece he had done so that people could experience the beauty and richness of the New Orleans he knows.

“It’s called ‘Serenity Now,'” Holloway says. “It’s a photograph and an old window. The photo is of a swamp close to the city. It’s really about serenity near the craziness of New Orleans.”

Goodreaux says that all of the art in the show was donated. Katie Colleran, photo

The photo is placed in a window pane Holloway retrieved from a house in the city that had been destroyed by the storm, and he says it makes the viewer feel almost as if they are looking out a window and seeing the swamp.

Holloway will not be able to attend the opening of the show because he is in New Orleans, but he says he wants the show to have an impact on people.

“I want them to be blown away by the richness of New Orleans,” Holloway says. “Its like no other place on Earth. I want people to appreciate it. Like a gumbo, just so much goes into it. Watch it closely.”

Another contributor, Renee Gusman, donated an old portrait of herself to the show, Goodreaux says.

“The portrait is irrelevant until you realize it was all that was left of a house that stood for 35 years,” Goodreaux says.

Goodreaux also has art in the show. One of her pieces, called ‘Oh It Ain’t My Fault,’ is made from material she found in New Orleans, she says.

“I went to the Ninth Ward to find pieces that could inspire me…debris that would give a message,” Goodreaux says.

Goodreaux used two barrel bottoms to form a Venn diagram. In the circles she put a drawing of an African slave ship and a man dying of thirst outside a convention center after the disaster to represent the link between the two, she says.

Good luck coconuts

The show will be at Red Square on Church St. in Burlington, Vt. until March 31, Goodreaux says.

Senior Kate Schnurr, who has gone to New Orleans twice since the hurricane, on service trips, was at the opening on March 2. Looking at the art brought back memories of her last trip, she says.

“We saw a lot of houses covered in mold; stuff we cherish, photos and memorabilia, all had mold,” Schnurr says. “People could run ruined plates and things through a dishwasher, but you can’t do that with pictures.”

One of the pieces was a sign that was put up on a house after the hurricane declaring, “We’re still here ya bastards.” Schnurr says she remembers seeing many similar signs in the city.

“There were areas where houses were ruined,” she says. “Lots of houses had signs—‘Demolish Me,’‘Come get me.’”

Steve Sclafani says he came to the show on a suggestion of a friend and because he wanted to support Katrina victimes.

“The art is really moving,” Sclafani says. “I’m a sensitive guy and it’s sad that all of this is still going on.”

Admission to the show is free, but donations are accepted, and ‘Good Luck’ coconuts are for sale Goodreaux says.

Senior Kate Schnurr says she remembers seeing many signs like the one above during her trips to New Orleans after the hurricane. Katie Colleran, photo

“‘Good Luck’ coconuts are great,” says Holloway. “They are painted and covered in glitter. The Zulus started the tradition by throwing them at Mardi Gras. Anyone who caught one was lucky.”

Goodreaux says she has no real fundraising goal.

“I just want all the art to be sold,” she says.

As for Holloway, he says he is happy to donate his work to the Katrina cause.

“Seeing is believing,” he says. “People need to see New Orleans and get so touched by the devastation that their mouth drops open. The city needs all we can do—art, donations, aid.”