Seminole Sage was created for a very dear friend of mine, who lost her horses, cats, and goats to the storm. Seminole Sage was the name of her magnificent Rocky Mountain horse, whom I was privileged to ride on may occasions. This piece is about the pain of losing our animal “familiars” and is composed of portions of a carved wooden horse, a wooden headboard, metal wing, crosses, nails, wicker, bottle caps, cheesecloth and pages from the book “Black Beauty.” 48" x 37"

SOLD

Rhinestone Angel was created especially for a new friend of mine, who bought another piece in the collection. Through emails, he told me of his parent’s story of loss, and I was inspired to create something for them. This piece incorporates a wooden angel, an ornate picture frame, a battered and rusty piece of metal, an abused bracelet, and a piece of formica. 14" x 19"

SOLD

Puppet of the Storm is another piece which speaks to anger and helplessness. We were as powerless as manikins during the storm and its aftermath. The anger on the face of the puppet tells it all. The rest of the piece is comprised of a grill rack, a fan blade and part of a screen painted by another artist. 18" x 32" SOLD

Heron is all about the animals which perished in the storm. As of six weeks after Katrina, I have yet to see a single animal alive in Clermont Harbor. They are coming back in the area, but for these past weeks, the silence of the animals has been a traumatic void in our lives. The piece is composed of a metal bird by an unknown artist, a piece of one of my paintings, a piece of Asian paper, and rusted tin. 24" x 34"

SOLD

Oak and Wall features one of the digital images I created after the storm. A live oak was uprooted next to a beautifully painted wall on Beach Blvd in Bay St. Louis. The image rests upon a piece of handmade paper which I recovered from my property, as well as a piece of corrugated cardboard and a fragment of masonite. 22" x 11" SOLD

Northeast Quadrant is a piece that is powerful because of its simplicity. It is composed of a plaster wing mounted on a round piece of metal. The piece of metal sticking off to the side represents the position of the worst side of a hurricane, and the position in which my community found itself on August 29, 2005. The golden wing points to the hopefulness with which we look to the future. 22"

SOLD

North Beach Blvd is comprised of cork over wood; scuffed plywood; handmade paper; bamboo webbing; fragment of a painting and a digital image. The image is of a storm battered tree on the beach in Bay St. Louis, not far from the Bay Bridge. This is a very straightforward piece; it simply tells, in layers, the Gulf Coast story on August 29, 2005. 12" x 15 1/2"

SOLD

The Katrina Collection is evolving. In the beginning, all of the pieces were about the storm itself, and my reaction to the event. As I began working through the healing process, I discovered that I was able to focus on creating works from the debris that were more about the joy of creating than about the event. Now, another level has been reached. I am still using debris in all of the pieces, but I am beginning to incorporate elements which I am finding in my travels, and which were not necessarily dug out of rubbish piles. I see this as another step forward in the struggle to incorporate the storm into my life, and make it my own.

Norma Jean’s Bayou features a digital image I created of a painting finished several months before the storm. I had begun a second painting of the same location, which I found hanging from a piece of someone’s roof. I combined the two images with fragments of handmade paper and a bamboo tray which used to sit on a table in my home. The support for the piece is masonite. 28" x 20"

Sold

Nicholson Avenue features a digital image of the railroad tracks near Nicholson Avenue in Waveland. The fury of the storm can be seen in the twisted metal, and the house which was deposited on the tracks in the distance. The rest of the piece is a fragment of handmade paper, part of a wicker basket, and a deformed cookie sheet. 11" x 18" SOLD

Monkey Business incorporates a broken terra cotta pot, a metal vessel, and a plaster monkey which rests on a platform. There is nothing terribly profound about this piece; I just loved the idea of the monkey playing the saxophone. 20" high SOLD

Mignon was born as a result of a conversation with a member of the staff at the Mississippi Humanities Council. I received a call from the office, inquiring about the possibility of using one of my pieces for the image on the invitations to the annual awards banquet. I designed Mignon for them and in addition to using the image, they purchased the piece. The damage caused by the storm is symbolized by the broken pot, muddy and torn sheet music, and the missing hand of the figure. The piece is also about hope and rebirth, however. The confident stride of the figure as well as his Mona Lisa-like smile, and the presence of the sheet music indicate that we will move forward, and will once again be surrounded by the things we love. 30" high

SOLD

Mimosa at Buccaneer began with a digital image of a painting. The mimosa tree is still standing in front of Buccaneer State Park, albeit heavily damaged. The image is mounted on a piece of handmade paper, and also incorporates a fragment of wood flooring and a vinyl tile. 12" x 12" SOLD

Like A Lion tells the story, in both image and handwritten text, of the fashion in which Katrina roared onto the Gulf Coast. The piece is comprised of a digital image, handmade paper, broken glass, damaged frame and a cupboard door. 18" x 18" SOLD

Mardi Gras Doll is about my neighbors in New Orleans. So many people suffered unimaginable hardships in the city, and yet the spirit of the Big Easy remains. The piece consists of a damaged mardi gras doll, mardi gras beads, handmade paper and an acrylic support. 14" x 14" SOLD

Love was fashioned from a ceramic plaque, a piece of handmade paper, and another piece of that lovely formica wall panel. It is a very simple and sweet piece which says much more than its words. 12" x 22"

SOLD

Last Boats at Bayou Caddy is an image of another painting. It is supported by building paper, hand made paper, scuffed plywood and a vinyl flooring tile. 12" x 12" SOLD

Lake Pontchartrain centers on a digital image of one of my paintings. Most of the work in this series is about the Mississippi Gulf Coast, but this is an acknowledgement of the hardships faced by the people of New Orleans. The image is surrounded by fragments of a mixed media work which did not survive the storm, as well as a beautifully scarred piece of plywood. The support is masonite. 12 1/2" x 17" SOLD

Katrina Song is a peaceful work which is easy to rest your eyes upon. The inspiration for the work was the fragment of a guitar neck. Music was an important part of my upbringing and even when musical instruments are ripped apart, they still represent comfort to me. The assemblage consists of a cupboard door; wooden bowl; fragments of acrylic paintings on paper; portion of a guitar neck; decorative string, and cross. 16" x 21"

SOLD

Irish Eyes is about one of my storm stories. Intensely private, it hints at my fears during the storm and in particular, my fear that I would find a close friend dead. The piece is of board, acrylic paint; fragments of two acrylic paintings; corrugated cardboard; metal; handmade paper; digital image; metal watch casing, and a handwritten account. 12" x 20"

SOLD

Counter Clockwise Rotation, with it’s cruciform shape, is about the human suffering caused by the storm. As everyone in hurricane country knows, the storms in this hemisphere always have this rotation. The piece is composed of a drawer part, a piece of a kitchen cupboard door, two pieces of fine furniture, an enameled disk, a storm-damaged photograph of myself when young, and a table tennis racket. 28" x 32" SOLD

Gypsy Doll has garnered some strong reactions, most of them negative. People find this piece very disturbing, but I see it in a different light. The broken and muddy doll represents how so many of us felt-and looked- in the immediate period after the storm. In lieu of her missing hair I wound some fragments of cloth I had salvaged. The resulting “gypsy” look of the doll points to our collective status as indigents in our own community. As a friend put it, “we are all pushing around shopping carts now.” This piece incorporates a shutter; metal; Christmas lights, doll fragment and cloth. 18" x 30"

SOLD

Framed Fish is a piece that was born from my occasional forays into the world of outrageous color. While my natural inclination is towards the earth tones, the vibrant colors of this dented enameled fish would not be satisfied with my normal fare of color. I enhanced the ornate frame and bruised piece of plywood to compliment the fish, and mounted them all on a wooden platter which I also painted. 17" x 17" SOLD

Eye Glass incorporates several layers of meaning. The support is handmade paper which I created from muddy bits of paper after the storm; I was drawn to the fragments because of the gold stars. They reminded me of the night after the storm; without any lights, the stars were more intense than I have ever seen them. The digital images are of the sunset over the wreckage of Clermont Harbor; the light coming through the trees was beautiful, even among the ruins of my town. The text is another fragment of the Barthe letters, and an image of my eyes is seen through my husband’s magnifying glass. Eye Glass is completed with a damaged frame and twisted piece of decorative metal. 24" x 12 1/2" SOLD

Eyes of the Storm is about the collective images that thousands of us along the coast witnessed. These are images that we will never forget. The piece is composed of a salvaged canvas, digital images of my eyes, cheesecloth, twigs, a broken pair of scissors from my kitchen and a coin of my husband’s. 16" x 16"

SOLD

Cruciform III is another reflection on the Waveland tree. This piece is composed of a digital image, plastic, and is mounted on a portion of a cupboard door. 10" x 22"

Sold

Cruciform II is an example of one of the other ways which I have interpreted the powerful image of the cruciform that could be seen in Waveland for weeks after the storm. The support for the piece is a vinyl flooring tile, and the foremost image is a digital print of the cruciform tree. Sandwiched in between are fragments of hand painted, handmade paper, and corrugated cardboard. 16" x 20"

SOLD

Cherub is a joyful piece which started with the damaged, delightful little ceramic figure which is nestled inside a brass decorative bowl. The circular shape is repeated, with variations, by the bent fan wire and is completed with the triangular fragment of formica wall panel and scored wood tile. 14" x 21" SOLD

Blue Moon is composed from a fine furniture detail piece, painted and distressed plywood, a rusty pie tin, pieces of a picture frame, all mounted on a painted board. The title refers not only to the color of the plywood, but to our hope that an experience like Katrina won’t happen very often. 42" x 36" SOLD

Blue Heron is one of the most complex pieces in the series, both visually and metaphorically. A powerful digital image of a ruined structure on the beach is surrounded by an ornate frame, indicating that the house was once lovely and expensive. While the support for the work is a piece of very twisted and rusty metal which indicates the wrath and power of the storm, a “tree” with green leaves is bursting through the image of the ruined house, signifying rebirth and growth. Pieces of an oak mirror act as vertical structure for the piece, and a blue Heron sits off to the side, as if waiting to return to the coast. Portions of a recovered painting and cloth pulled out of the same tree complete the piece. 16" x 32" SOLD

Guardian Angel, the fifth piece in the rescue series, was created from a painted plaster angel placed upon a wooden box adorned with a cast metal detail. The backdrop for the piece is a wooden chair back fragment, a curved wooden part of another chair, a portion of an ornate frame, and a metal platter. 32" high. SOLD

Battered Wood began with the scuffed, beat up cupboard door which I pulled out of a pile of rubbish. This is one of the pieces that has to do more with certain elements coming together than with a complex story. The central image is of a house near the Yacht Club in Bay St. Louis, and it is surrounded with yarn, a piece of formica, an leather case of some sort, and a piece of metal. 17" x 21" SOLD

Barthe’s Angel is one of my favorite pieces in the series. Before the storm, I had many transparencies of letters from Barthe, a world renowned sculptor from Bay St. Louis, to the Labat sisters. Nearly two months after Katrina, I chanced upon two of those letters, lying in a heap of rubble by the side of the road blocks from my house. Scuffed, torn and covered in mud, they were an incredible find. This letter seemed to fall into place on the plywood with so many layers ripped off, and the round wire piece from a friend’s dartboard. The “halo’ was screaming for an angel, and I just happened to have a broken angel, thanks to some friends on Main Street. The cross and the repeated round shape in rusted metal complete the piece. 16" x 34"

SOLD

Barrier Island II consists of a digital image of one of my paintings, fragments of a mixed media piece which was destroyed in the storm, building paper and a vinyl tile. 12" x 12"

SOLD

Armoire Angel, the fourth in the rescue series, incorporates a carved wooden angel and gold leafed decorative element mounted on two separate fragments of fine furniture. 20 1/2" x 24" SOLD

Angel in the Music Box is the third in the series about relief and rescue workers, and is composed of a carved wooden angel, a wooden box, sheet music, plywood, picture frame fragment and a metal platter. SOLD

Angel of the Storm is about the incredible relief workers who left their homes and families to come, often without pay, and help us here on the coast. On another level, it points to the reality of broken spirits as well as shattered lives. Katrina robbed us of much more than our houses. The plaster angel has been mounted on a heavy brass platter that was crushed by the immense power of the storm. Two crosses further the spiritual theme while broken plywood, ripped fabric, battered plywood and stained grass mats comprise the rest of the piece. 30" x 40"

SOLD

Angel of the Pink Wings is about all the search and rescue people who risked their lives to aid people trapped in the path of the storm. Members of local fire and police forces stayed on the job throughout the long hours of Katrina. The piece is comprised of a salvaged, mud stained angel, a fragment of an antique piece of furniture, a chair seat, and wooden wings. 50" x 21" SOLD

Angel of St. Rose speaks to the strength of the St. Rose de Lima community in Bay St. Louis. The church survived with very little damage, and members of the church’s incredible choir were raising their voices in song again very soon after the storm. This piece is composed of a battered, metal and glass angel, a scratched piece of glass, and two separate frames which I salvaged. 24" x 30"

SOLD

Heron FE Fe references a beautiful painting which I was lucky enough to own for 15 years. The original FE Fe (Iron Faith) was a non-representational piece painted by my cousin Todd Christensen, whom I have long admired. The basic configuration of the circle on top of the rectangle is borrowed from Todd, while the vertical element and the heron head are my contributions. The heron and the disk are metal, the horizontal element is a fragment of a table, and the vertical element is a piece of battered siding. 31" x 20" SOLD

Nippon Saint II was created from a broken piece of Japanese ceramics, an old door plate, a salvaged cupboard handle, a wood platter and a Mardi Gras face. SOLD

Nippon Saint I was created from a wood platter, an old door plate, a broken piece of Japanese ceramics, part of a cupboard handle, and a mardi gras face. Sold

Angel Delorosa (Sorrowful Angel) is a poignant piece with an interesting story. The face of the angel is another of those remnants from some of my mardi gras stash, and it is surrounded by a "halo" of a metal napkin ring which formerly sported a fleur de lis. The body of the angel is the handle to a metal basket, and the damaged wings are from another angel who is forever lost to Hurricane Katrina. The angle is affixed to an antique (I think) mirrored candle sconce, which is adhered to a metal Mexican frame which I picked up in Louisiana a few months ago. The story is that when I stopped at this Mexican import shop and bought this damaged, rusted frame with the tile inserts, the owner of the shop just happened to mention that some of his merchandise, including this frame, had been damaged when Hurricanes Katrina, then Rita, wreaked havoc upon the merchandise he stored outside. 19" x 23" SOLD

Zodiac Cat is so named because the small platter which forms a halo around his head has the signs of the zodiac on it. The cat itself is painted and carved wood which may have been a bookend, and it is mounted upon a tray covered in faux alligator skin. This is a fun piece. 10" x 16" SOLD

Harlequin is another of those pieces which took months to put together-about a year, actually. I must have tried pairing the figure with dozens of different elements, and never could find the right combination. The figure is resting inside a broken ceramic goblet which is a recent acquisition; people are still dropping debris off for me, and this was one of those gifts. The goblet sits inside a damaged box lined with a scrap of a rug which I found on the beach in Clermont Harbor a couple of months after the storm. A metal knob ornaments the top of the box, which is affixed to a purchased metal picture frame decorated with another scrap of the rug from the beach. 13" x 11" x 5" SOLD

Fisherman is a whimsical piece which starts with a painted metal pelican which I salvaged from Pam and Joy's shop, Twin Light Creations, in Old Town Bay St, Louis. With a bill full of fish, he rests inside the lid to a wicker chest. 18" x 13" x 10" SOLD

Revenge of the Rooster is a whimsical piece I made from a charger plate, the door to a kitchen cupboard, a cigar box, three voodoo dolls which came from the mud in my back yard, and a metal rooster that I salvaged from the debris of an antique store in Bay St. Louis. SOLD

Arch Saint III was fashioned from a piece of architectural salvage, a piece of scrap plywood, cloth from a debris pile, matboard wings, polymer face, and more cloth for the hair. SOLD

Arch Saint II was created from a piece of architectural salvage, a couple of pieces of scrap plywood, wings I cut out from matboard, debris cloth, a polymer face, and a piece of salvaged metal with another small polymer face attached. SOLD

Arch Saint I was created from a piece of architectural salvage, some wire with salvaged cloth wrapped around it, the inlaid lid to a wood box, a face made from polymer clay, and a halo of metal and a piece of mirror glass. SOLD

The Marsh is a special piece. It started when my friend Dwight Isaacs of Shabby Chic in Bay St. Louis brought me the piece of sheet metal. It was a "thundermaker" from the old Bay St Louis Little Theatre, which was obliterated in Katrina. The thundermaker had been given to Dwight by our mutual friend Jerry Dixon, longtime gallery owner in Bay St. Louis. I was represented by Jerry's gallery, Serenity, for my first five years in the Bay. The sheet metal is layered with one of the paintings which I rescued from Jerry'sold building, and the metal egret came from an antique store which used to be on the beach in the Bay. The support for the piece is the top to an old table. 19" x 28" SOLD