Focusing On Flora and Fauna
Over the last seven years photographer LeeAnn Hepler of Patterson has traveled the remote back roads and levees of St. Mary Parish at those golden moments after sunrise or before…
Author: John R. Kemp
Bringing Paintings To Life
The famed Mexican muralist Diego Rivera once said a mural “is like a poem in colors.” Artist Connie Harris of St. Gabriel in Iberville Parish has gained a large following, painting her own poems “in colors” on the walls of…
Preserving Their Place
Chantel Comardelle of Houma is on a personal mission to document the history and culture of her people — the Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaw Native American tribe that once inhabited the rapidly…
Making Music On Canvas
On the cover of zydeco musician Keith Frank’s 2021 album “The Resurrection of the Creole Connection” is a painted scene of an African-American Creole family sitting out in the front yard. The woman…
Catch And Release
Lafayette nature photographer Gary Meyers gives new meaning to the old sportsman adage, “catch and release.” With his camera and kayak, Meyers — dressed in camouflage — moves quietly through the swamps and bayous of Louisiana’s Acadian parishes, capturing…
Lost and Found
Historians love to write about the Acadian diaspora, and Longfellow tells us of their “wonder and sadness.” Now, Lafayette artist Cecilia O’Keefe Neustrom shows us the faces of their “Cajun” descendants who live across the prairies and along…
Emotional Horizons
Novelist Thomas Wolfe wasn’t always right. Sometimes you can go home again, especially when your heart never left. New Iberia-born photographer and artist Marjorie Brown Pierson, witnessing from afar the devastation caused by hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005,…
Building on the Past
Dale Pierrottie is an artist, musician, preservationist, teacher and sometimes actor from Lafayette, but more importantly he is a master of an ancient Native American building technique that helped 18th-century French settlers build their homes in colonial Louisiana.…
Visual Vocabulary
To see more of dusty reed’s work visit cajunpicasso.com “One look at Dusty Reed’s paintings filled with fragmented, angular imagery and you’ll know why he’s called the Cajun Picasso. Like Pablo Picasso, who drew inspiration from African tribal…
Medicinal Artistry
“Art for art’s sake” is a popular trope in the art world, but to Lafayette artist Gwendolyn Alexis Richard, art is a place of solace that awakens the imagination to help heal the minds of troubled children and adults.…
Danse de Mardi Gras
“Lost to nothing on a bay of dreams”, 36”x 48”, oils on canvas. All rights held by the artist, Herb Roe © 2021. #herbroe #southerngothicaesthetic #southerngothicart #contemporarypainting #contemporaryart #southerngothic #southernart #beadsandbones #mardigrasart #moonpie #mardigrasbeads #boc #blueoystercult…
Paradise Found
Lafayette artist Ramsey Ayers invites viewers to join her on a mythical island that exists only in her imagination What happens when a Louisiana artist looks to the exotic tropical paintings of a…
Dreamscapes
Dreams are like waves washing upon a sandy beach. They leave impressions that quickly disappear. Not for Lafayette artist Kate Gordon, however. Those enigmatic images conjured in Gordon’s dreams often cross the subconscious threshold…
Going Home
To New Iberia artist Jerome Weber, the land in south Louisiana’s Acadian parishes, filtered through warm, humid sunlight, is the most beautiful landscape in the United States. “Even before I…
Naturally Surreal
Lafayette artist Amy Michelle Guidry has much in common with the 19th-century French Impressionist painter Edgar Degas. To Degas, “Art is not what you see, but what you make others see.” Guidry paints “not just to bring attention to issues…
Vulnerable Landscape
The 18th century German poet Goethe is said to have quipped, “music is liquid architecture” and “architecture is frozen music.” To South Louisiana architect and landscape artist Claude Ellender, painting is music on canvas. Born in New Orleans…
Shades of Gray
Life in Louisiana’s Acadian parishes is colorful, yet, the internationally acclaimed Lafayette photographer Lucius Fontenot is an artist who sees timeless spiritual rhythms and beauty in the gray shadows of Louisiana’s Cajun culture. “I love how unique, beautiful, strange,…
L’art: Family of Man
Over the last four decades, the acclaimed Lafayette photographer Philip Gould has traveled the cultural and spiritual byways of South Louisiana with his camera and imagination in search for what the Swiss-born American photographer Robert Frank described as “the humanity…
Prayerful Painting
The Bible tells us the prayer “of a righteous man is powerful and effective.” Now witness “soulful impressions” and prayerful paintings by St. Martinville artist Dennis Paul Williams, a righteous man. The Louisiana music world knows Williams as the guitarist…
Organized Chaos
John Muir, the famed Scottish-American naturalist and “Father of the National Parks,” once wrote that only in the wilderness could he find his soul. Like Muir, artist Bill Iles turns to the swamps and forests of Southwest Louisiana as a…
Rooms with a View
When planning her new home, a Lafayette businesswoman nearing retirement decided she wanted more than just a great kitchen and a pretty dining room for family gatherings. A consummate hostess and a gifted cook, she envisioned a dining room with…
Of Robichaux and Thibodaux
The moderately sweet, complex citrus flavor of aged Satsuma Rum accented with bitters and fresh lime renders an intensely refreshing, medium-length finish. Prompted by recollections of childhood visits to Cinclare Plantation near Brusly, Michael Dalmau’s eponymous restaurant commemorates his exiled…
Cannabis Coming to a Pharmacy Near You
Lake Charles, Lafayette, Houma While states like California are benefitting from lucrative high-tech mobile gadgets for legal marijuana (pods of cannabis oil snap into place on pen-like “vapes” equipped with Bluetooth capacity), Louisiana is only recently getting into…
Tea à la Teche
A new summer cocktail at Café Sydnie Mae honors Chef Bonnie Breaux’s ancestral link to Breaux Bridge’s founder
A Pamplemousse Pick-Up
It’s fizzy-hour time for forbidden fruit
Dream Spaces
Serene elements and muted fields of color bring relaxed elegance to a soigné country home near Breaux Bridge
Island Inspiration
A cookbook author’s residence is designed for gourmet adventures in a resort setting
Liquid Epiphany
A seductive Twelfth Night Sour inspires winter imbibing and revelry with an afterglow
a tale of two farms
An architectural restoration in Opelousas harkens back to region’s early settlers
Whip it good
Enjoy a sweet, smooth, syrup-laced cocktail with holiday spices on the water’s edge
of formality and function
A designer brings a Breaux Bridge couple’s dreams full circle
tiki-tini time
Enjoy a blast of cold air and refreshing end-of-summer cocktails with a tropical kick
Lucille’s Bubbles and Bite
An invigorating summer cocktail that delivers eye candy and wow factor in Lake Charles
Artful Outdoors
Entertaining rituals are amplified by summer’s full spectrum at a sprawling country estate
Warming Effect
Thaitini at Blu Basil in Lafayette will keep your spirits high
artfully refined spaces
A continually evolving Lafayette home reflects classic modern sensibilities and a designer’s global appeal
elements of design
Melding a finely-tuned modern perspective with Old World sensibilities
French Country Charm
With a love for the arts and a passion for Provence, a musically-inclined couple fashions a fashionable home in Lafayette
Clothiers in Their Culinary Element
Lafayette interior designer Justine Hebert renovates her parents’ new home to complement their gourmet devotions and relaxed lifestyle beyond the men’s fashion biz
Soothing Summer Sanctuaries
Tropical oases designed for resort-style entertaining during the sizzling days and steamy starlit nights
inspired kitchens & baths
Motivate yourself to refresh your home with a diversity of six designs
nouvelles de villes
Artfully Devoted Lafayette As a dedication to the community’s tragic July 2015 movie theater shooting in Lafayette, students and faculty from the UL-Lafayette School of Architecture and Design collaborated with the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, Acadiana…
nouvelles de villes
Folk Art: Allons se voir là-bas! Jeanerette “The Art and Social Commentary of Clementine Hunter,” a traveling exhibit from the Louisiana State Museum runs through January 15 at the Jeanerette Museum (500 Main St.; 337-276-4408). While there, check out the…
6 Sporting Spots For Football Fever
Get your game day vibes on at these energetic, tribal enclaves throughout Acadiana
They've Got Game
‘Tis the season for holiday feasts and playoff barbecues featuring wild game at the Heberts’ French Country residence in Lafayette
Landmark Revived
A historic New Iberia house next to Shadows-on-the-Teche recalls grandeur of the Old South and legacies of old souls along the bayou.
Nouvelles de Villes
Got Gumbo? around acadiana Sweet Crude, the high-energy septet fusing indie pop with Cajun lyrics, joins the traditional musical lineup of Cajun and zydeco bands during Lafayette’s Festivals Acadiens et Créole Oct. 9-11, which draws foodies for the annual Bayou…
Poolscapes as Personal Resorts
Creating a small slice of paradise in your own backyard
Nouvelles De Villes
Hurricane Museum Underway Lake Charles As South Louisiana residents recall Hurricane Rita during its 10th anniversary in September, on the heels of hurricane Katrina’s 10th in August, a positive development is taking place in Lake Charles that’s designed to save…
Wedding Wisdom
Six Tips from the Mother of the Bride
