oil on panel
2015.

Levee Water Blues is a painting done during my time living in New Orleans.  It was inspired by personal stories I was told by the locals of what happened during Hurricane Catrina.  Although ten years had past since that frightful day, constant reminders remained everywhere in the city.  Where one can witness the waterline stains on the side of houses,  communities still boarded up because it would cost much more to repair the houses than it would to rent an apartment.  In this painting I hoped to capture the resilient soul of the citizens of New Orleans who even in griefseem to find a way to celebrate life.  The model for this painting was a local street musician named Andre Lovett who I would often see busking in the streets of the French Quarter.