Art and Photography Blog

Photos of World's Largest Reading Lession

On Wednesday of last week we participated in an interesting event. The New Orleans Public Library is starting a literacy campaign, Turn the Page, to make New Orleans the most literate city in the world by 2018. To bring attention to the effort, they organized the world’s largest reading lesson with about 500 kids at the main library. The previous record was 80. My friend and I served as recorders of attendance, along with about ten others, using the Guinness Book of records forms and we also held up a copy of the book being read and turned the pages for the group of kids we were assigned.

  

On of my favorite actors, Wendell Pierce, is co-chair of the literacy campaign and he read from a children’s story about New Orleans music. A band of New Orleans music greats (Ellis Marsalis, David Glenn Andrews, Irvin Mayfield, Shannon Powell, and others) played along with him. A number of speakers, including the mayor, first spoke on the value of literacy. All the kids got an autographed copy of the book. The author and illustrator were there and did a lesson on the book. After the lessons some of the musicians did a second line through the crowd of kids.

  

The kids got also second line handkerchiefs with the literacy campaign signage on it.  Wendell Pierce has become very active in a number of New Orleans efforts including new housing in his old neighborhood. 

January 29th Opening for My Buffa's Painting Show

My paintings are up at Buffa's Back Room now. The hours are 6PM to Close on Mondays, and 11AM to Close on Wednesday through Sunday. Here is a post with more details on the show. Below is the invitation to opening this week. Hope to see you there. 

Painting: Mardi Gras Krewe Rider

Carnival season started in New Orleans with the Phorty Phunny Phellows on January 6th. To honor the season here is a 24" x 24" acrylic paintings of a Madi Gras float rider. It continues a series that I started last year. Here is a sample painting. 

The best way to easily see most of my paintings for sales is to go to my Facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/bill.ives2 - and look at Photos and albums within Photos. I have three photo albums covering my art. One is for discounted pairings under $100.  The other is for most of the rest (over $100). The third is for paintings that I have either sold or ones that are not for sale. However, if anyone is interested in them I will paint another version for them on commission. I will ship anywhere and have shipped art works as far as Australia.

In New Orleans there are currently paintings hanging at two of my favorite New Orleans restaurants. One is the music club with great food, Buffa's. It is open 24/7 and is located at 1001 Esplanade Ave. (504) 949-0038.  Hera is a post on the opening: My Paintings Are Up at Buffa's Backroom. The other is  Riccobono's Panola Street Cafe. Here is a post describing the showing. It is located at 7801 Panola Street (504 314-1810). You can also contact me to see more of them. 

Showing of My New Orleans Paintings at Buffa's Back Room

Buffa’s Back Room is one of my favorite music venues in New Orleans. Now I am honored to have a selection of my recent New Orleans painting hanging in the Back Room.  There are a total of 19 works covering New Orleans architecture, food, musicians, Mardi Gras float riders, and two Buffa’s beer signs. Buffa’s is open 24/7 and is located at 1001 Esplanade Ave. (504) 949-0038. Below are the front entrance on the left and the back room entrance on the right.

    

The painting are up now as shown below. There will be an opening for the show on Wednesday, January 29 at 7PM. I hope to see you there.

  

One of my favorite acts at Buffa’s is the regular Thursday night duo of Tom McDermott & Aurora Nealand. I am also a big fan of Antoine Diel who has joined them at times at Buffa's.

    

I always eat while there as the food is wonderful. My top choices are the Boudin Balls and Crawfish Etouffée seen below.

    

Photos of 2013 Crescent City BBQ Blues Festival: Sunday

The eight annual Crescent City BBQ Blues Festival was held on October 18 – 20 at Lafayette Square in the CBD in New Orleans. My last post covered Saturday. There was a mix of New Orleans blues bands and those from elsewhere, mostly the US South. For me, Sunday began with Beverly Guitar Watkins, a 74 year old women, who plays blues with the passion of a twenty year old. She even did the playing over her back routine.

            
Next were the Lee Boys, a gospel blues group with a lot of power. Toward the end of their set, they brought up a very young blues guitarist who joined them on a strong Steve Ray Vaughn style rendering of Jimi Hendrix, Voodoo Child. The kid played beyond his years. The festival artist also did a painting of the band. It was auctioned off after the performance, just like the one he did of Sonny Landreth on Saturday.

                    
The Mighty Sam McClain performed next with a talented band of horns and guitars. Sam was one of the few to bring in horns. He also provided the same spiritual power offered by the Lee Boys and his band followed suit. The afternoon just kept getting better.

          

  
The day was closed by my favorite of the festival, the skillful show man Mel Waiters. Blues purists would likely not agree with me. There were so many strong blues performances but I liked the showmanship of Mel and his group. He also added horns. Their music was a mix of R&B and blues, unlike most of the others who were straight blues. This was not the reason for my endorsement. I just liked the way they went beyond simply playing powerful blues with great passion to providing a lot of fun with some playful acts, while still providing a powerful message. They also danced in unison to many numbers that was part of their R&B element. I look forward to next year’s event.

                
In my next two posts I will cover the 2013 Festival Acadien in Lafayette, LA. It occurred the weekend before the BBQ Blues Fest. The diversity of music in New Orleans and South Louisiana is likely the widest in the country. I would also argue that the talent is the most consistently strong as anywhere. BB King said at JazzFest, “New Orleans has the strongest musicians of any city in the world.” I am lucky to be living in the same city as all this talent and try to get out to see live music the majority of days each the week.

 

 

Photos of 2013 Crescent City BBQ Blues Festival: Saturday

Finally I am getting to covering some more of the great music in New Orleans and South Louisiana in 2013 during my first full year down here after returning to my home town, New Orleans, in late 2012. The time has flown. Thsi post contineus Monday's BBQ theme and adds music. 

The eight annual Crescent City BBQ Blues Festival was held on October 18 – 20 at Lafayette Square in the CBD in New Orleans. It was my first one but it will become an annual event for me. There were a mix of New Orleans blues bands and those from elsewhere, mostly the US South. Great BBQ from a variety of traditions fueled the audience over the three days. On Saturday and Sunday there were two stages with performances timed so one started as the other finished. You did not have to make choices, like many other multi-stage events. You simply had to keep moving from one side of Lafayette Park to the other with no wait time between acts.

Saturday began with New Orleans’ own Guitar Lightning Lee, who played a significant role in the HBO series, Treme. I have seen him in town and he is one of the better blues players in the city.

      
Blind Boy Paxton played a solo acoustic set. His strong presence carried the stage without needing an electric band behind him. It was the only solo act and he displayed a wide range of roots blues, playing the fiddle, harmonica, guitar, and banjo.

    

  

Sonny Landreth is a master blues guitar player. However, I had seen him in the New England and was disappointed with the seeming lack of passion at that performance in a Worcester MA parking lot. Perhaps he was out of his element then, as his set at the BBQ Blues Fest did not disappoint. He got that blues guitar working quite well with a lot of energy. An artist did a painting of the band during the performance that was auctioned off for over $3,000 for a worthy cause.

    

   

For me, the highlight of the day was Shemekia Copeland who displayed great passion in her performance. She grew up in Harlem. Her father was a famous blues player, Johnny Copeland, and she grew up with this career in mind. Shemekia told a great story about a talent day in her second grade class in Harlem in the 80s. The boys did hip hop and the girls mostly did Whitney Houston. Instead she sang old school blues. Her teacher called to complain to her parents about Shemekia singing about making love to an alligator, Her simply replied, “what do you expect, she is a blues singer.”  My next post will cover Sunday’s acts. 

  

          

Painting: Mardi Gras Peppers

The fun has begun. Carnival season started in New Orleans with the Phorty Phunny Phellows on January 6th. To honor the occasion here is a 16" x 20" acrylic paintings of some yellow and green pappers against a purple bakdrop. 

The best way to easily see most of my paintings for sales is to go to my Facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/bill.ives2 - and look at Photos and albums within Photos. I have three photo albums covering my art. One is for discounted pairings under $100.  The other is for most of the rest (over $100). The third is for paintings that I have either sold or ones that are not for sale. However, if anyone is interested in them I will paint another version for them on commission. I will ship anywhere and have shipped art works as far as Australia.

In New Orleans there are currently paintings hanging at two of my favorite New Orleans restaurants. One is the music club with great food, Buffa's. It is open 24/7 and is located at 1001 Esplanade Ave. (504) 949-0038.  Hera is a post on the opening: My Paintings Are Up at Buffa's Backroom. The other is  Riccobono's Panola Street Cafe. Here is a post describing the showing. It is located at 7801 Panola Street (504 314-1810). You can also contact me to see more of them. 

Photos of Mytilini, Samos Island, Greece: Part 3

This is part three of three part series on Mytilini, a mountian village in the island of Samos, Greece. Samos is located a mile off the Turkish coast. Twice I have spent over four weeks there, inlcuding this past August and September. Samos is an island that Americans seem to ignore unless they have relatives here. Most visitors are from Northern Europe and they gather in the seaside towns and resorts. Mytilini is a mountian village and tends to mostly bring in visitors who are seeing family. The first post covered some background on the village and you can get more context for these images there. Below you can see twenty one images that we saw on the many walks we took around town. 

                                  
    














 

Painting: Abita Beer Sign at Buffa's, New Orleans

Here is a 16" x 20" acrylic painting of a Abita beer sign from a photo taken at Buffa's in New Orleans. This is a venue we often go for live music in the backroom and excellent food. It is located at 1001 Esplanade Ave, (504) 949-0038. This is the third beer sign I have done and a third is planned. The first was an LA 31 sign from a photo taken at nearby Mojitos at 437 Esplanade Ave, (504) 252-4800. The second was a Pabst Blue Ribbon sign also from Buffa's.

The best way to easily see most of my paintings for sales is to go to my Facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/bill.ives2 - and look at Photos and albums within Photos. I have three photo albums covering my art. One is for discounted pairings under $100.  The other is for most of the rest (over $100). The third is for paintings that I have either sold or ones that are not for sale. However, if anyone is interested in them I will paint another version for them on commission. I will ship anywhere and have shipped art works as far as Australia.

In New Orleans there are currently paintings hanging at two of my favorite New Orleans restaurants. One is the music club with great food, Buffa's. It is open 24/7 and is located at 1001 Esplanade Ave. (504) 949-0038.  Hera is a post on the opening: My Paintings Are Up at Buffa's Backroom. The other is  Riccobono's Panola Street Cafe. Here is a post describing the showing. It is located at 7801 Panola Street (504 314-1810). You can also contact me to see more of them. 

Photos of Mytilini, Samos Island, Greece: Part 2

This is part two of three part series on Mytilini, a mountian village in the island of Samos, Greece. Samos is located a mile off the Turkish coast. Twice I have spent over four weeks there, inlcuding this past August and September. Samos is an island that Americans seem to ignore unless they have relatives here. Most visitors are from Northern Europe and they gather in the seaside towns and resorts. Mytilini is a mountian village and tends to mostly bring in visitors who are seeing family. The first post covers some background on the village and you can get more context for the pictures there. Below you can see twenty images that we saw on the many walks we took around town.