Rita & Katrina

Just prior to Hurricane Katrina ravaging the city of New Orleans I led a workshop tour through the French Quarter at night. We stopped at the display windows of the Fleur de Paris, a vintage hat shop well known for evoking memories of a different era. I challenged my workshop students to create a visual story in paint based on these windows. The plan was to get together again and show our various interpretations, but the hurricanes interrupted our experiment. Many of the local artists lost their homes and studios and were now scattered around the country. Somehow this idea never lost traction despite all of the chaos, and eventually images from each artist came together.

Winner of the Morrison Family Memorial Award from the 26th Annual Adirondacks National Exhibition of American Watercolors 2007

Winner of the MOWS Members Award from the Missouri Watercolor National Exhibition 2007

Winner of the Canson Award from Watercolor West 2007