JAZZ FEST 2024
Jazz Fest in New Orleans is the last weekend of April and the first weekend of May. It can be hot, rainy, dusty, or all of them. This year was all sun and a completely different experience for me.
I had interviews, two art openings and got a pal pal.
If you know me you know I am not comfortable in front of the camera. I prefer behind the scenes invisibility. But this challenged me to get out of my comfort zone. Because of the poster I was asked to do quite a few interviews. Luckily I had two friends in town who became my handlers and guided me through. Without Marc and Amber Wierenga I wouldn’t have made it. Marc would prep me before each interview, reviewing talking points, walking me from venue to venue, and gently pushing me into place. He has some kind of quiet super power that just makes things happen. He’s also an amazing photographer and —lucky for me—has the presence of mind to document everything or else I’d have no proof that any of this even happened.
I opened a show at Cole Pratt Gallery on April 4th with a new body of work ( It’s important to remember here that shows are booked out a year in advance ) so as luck would have it, the closing of this show aligned perfectly with the beginning of Jazz Fest so we opened a second show with my original painting for the poster and all the sketches during the last week of my original show.
When the poster was announced back in January I received a DM through Instagram from an artist who was scheduled to perform at Jazz Fest, Tami Neilson. She wrote me the nicest note and we began corresponding. When she arrived in town she and her brother went to visit my show at Cole Pratt. Erika (the gallery owner) called to tell me she was there so I zoomed down to meet her in person an it was as if I’d known her forever. We saw them perform the next day and holy moly what a show! I’d seen her videos online, but was bowled over by her voice in real life. We didn’t get to spend much more time together, but sometimes you just know that a person belongs in your life. And that’s how we became pen pals.
