I was fortunate to have been able to participate in the portfolio reviews at PhotoNOLA recently. The reviewers were engaged and easy to talk to, and the organization of the event was perfect. As always when artists talk to a variety of people about their work, the opinions I got were wildly divergent. Some felt that the path my work is on is spot on, while others felt that I needed to rethink what I am doing. The task now is to take all that feedback and figure out what is or isn't relevant to my goals.
One of my favorite events was the PhotoWalk, at which the photographers spread their work out on tables in a large hall (unheated- thus the jackets we were all wearing), and to which the reviewers and the public were invited. The turnout was great and the conversations lively:
New Orleans is a great city and I saw some really moving art while I was there, particularly at the New Orleans Museum of Art. It was there that I saw a sublime exhibition of ceramics by Japanese artists titled New Forms, New Voices. I also discovered the paintings of Barkley L. Hendricks, whose portraits were utterly compelling. I don't often feel that a city has a sense of humor, but New Orleans definitely does. There is no better proof of that than the bronze plaque set into the sidewalk in front of the tiny diner that I ate breakfast in each morning:
