Crime Blotter: Reported offenses in the Tri-parishes
November 28, 2012
Gumbo’s Greatest Hits revealed
December 3, 2012
What do you call a woman who fishes, can throw a cast net from her condo, reads business magazines and crafts castoffs and copper into works of art? A “Metro Cajun.”
That’s how Joycelyn Boudreaux, a Houma artist creating contemporary Cajun art, describes herself. She’s becoming known for manipulating patinas on copper plates to draw out images into some iconic Louisiana scenes.
“I like the natural, original colors that are going to be created in copper,” she says. “I tell people I babysit copper” because it takes time to “paint” her designs using heat, humidity, acids, saltwater and time. She crafts her own boxes on which the copper plates are mounted, texturizes them and paints them with iron paint; then she forces the iron in the paint to rust, drawing out various colors in the rust. “It’s cool because it gives me this organic color palette from start to finish.” And they’re ready to hang without any other needs for framing.
Manipulating copper patinas is a specialized skill, limited to only about 70 families around the world, she says, and handed down from generation to generation. Boudreaux has been interested in metal since watching her father weld as a child, so she seized the opportunity to work with a copper sink maker Dino Rachiele in Florida where she was given carte blanche to create artisan-crafted patina finishes. She worked with him for a year and a half creating rustic patinas and linen finishes “until it became painful not to make a cypress tree” on the sheet of copper.
But once on her own, Boudreaux’s first design on copper wasn’t a cypress tree, but an oak tree – named “Scarlett Oak,” a play on Scarlett O’Hara, launching what’s also become hallmark of Boudreaux’s art: fun titles that may elicit a chuckle and strike a chord with the viewer.
Tucked in her studio off Sunset Avenue with music setting the mood, Boudreaux often works beginning in late afternoons and into the night, making best use of diffused light to coax images out of the copper. Her art lines the walls, her tools and raw materials dominate the center of the space and a worn but welcoming sectional sofa is the centerpiece for lively discussions when friends and patrons drop in for visits.
“A lot of people drop by,” she says. “The studio’s fun” and has welcomed not only local visitors, but people taking a detour from various parts of the state, as well as Florida, Dallas, Houston and two groups from Canada – friends and patrons found on Facebook.
“Facebook’s been good to me,” Boudreaux says. “I really get to know people online.” She treats Facebook as a blog, chatting about people who visit her studio, interesting things other artists and people in the community are doing and generally chatting about things that excite her. And when she finishes a new piece of art, she posts it for her online world to view and potentially purchase.
Sometimes, her work sells quickly from the venue. Boudreaux recently began a collection of jewelry – copper pieces with manipulated patinas strung on deerskin cords to form necklaces. About 45 minutes after she posted the photos, they started selling – and the collection sold out in 30 minutes. Then some who missed the opportunity messaged that they were sending cash as prepayment for a necklace from the next batch.
“I love shiny mediums. I love making stuff that makes you want to touch it,” Boudreaux says.
She’s continually fascinated by the effects of light – and breaks conversations to point out brilliance emanating from a particular copper piece the light is catching. Boudreaux’s a big fan of art nouveau, Russian-born French artist Erte’ whose designs helped define the art deco period and Gustav Kliment for his gold leaf work and plays of light.
In that vein, Boudreaux created some mirrored pieces – one a fleur-de-lis and a second a tree – both fashioned from mirrored glass she carefully broke apart. “It was like a massive, dangerous puzzle,” she says. Boudreaux also plans to tear into strips some old blue jeans from when she was painting on them in Florida, and then create a wall hanging.
She enjoys reclaiming materials and has created works called “Cypress Sun,” which feature a copper disc with its patina manipulated into a brilliant hue and cypress strips reclaimed from her great-grandfather’s barn built in the 1920s. The color and textural elements blend to create striking pieces.
“I want to create heirloom pieces of work… that nobody in any generation of your family will ever sell at a garage sale,” she says.
Boudreaux likes breaking rules. Although a publishing house in Florida has represented her, that company has indicated her work – with its jazz depictions, seafood themes and swamp scenes – is too regional in nature. But Boudreaux says that’s what makes her work unique and she revels in creating her artwork in Houma instead of New Orleans, where some people say she should be. They also say her work needs to be marketed by a gallery to go international, but Boudreaux is pushing that envelope through social media.
“If I can get people to come here, to Terrebonne/Houma, who were not going to come for any other reason,” then she feels successful. “I’m no more talented than anyone else in the art world,” Boudreaux says. “I just have a big mouth – I tell everybody about it.”
“I really believe I can be an international artist and live in Houma” near her parents and grandparents, she says. “I want to be here. I love Terrebonne Parish … I love my bayou roots.”
Joycelyn Boudreaux, a self-described “Metro Cajun,” works in her Houma studio.
Joycelyn Boudreaux’s work “Cypress Sun on Blue” is pictured.
