New business cards.  I will be actively collecting recordings and portraits for the next 6 months.  Trips to Alexandria, Arnaudville, Keatchie, Maringouin, Evergreen, Plain Dealing and Ruston very soon.

Creating a base in northern Louisiana to work from for about 6 months. Will be in the Alexandria area in a couple of weeks collecting stories and portraits. Then on to Keatchie, Lake Charles, Arnaudville and other places. 

A book of my recent photographs can be seen on issuu.com 
http://issuu.com/galleryjatad/docs/garden_pdf

This book is a precursor to work that I will be doing in Louisiana - documenting flora and fauna on my trips around the state.  I plan to create a book of those images as well.

If you are interested in purchasing Garden, copies can be ordered through Gallery Jatad or directly through Blurb.com.

I have been working on plans for a long term stay in Louisiana to allow myself time and better access to gather portraits and record personal histories.  

Two curators who are working in Louisiana and currently doing amazing things in the arts there are Benjamin Hickey at the Masur Museum and George Marks in Arnaudville.  

More on them and their work later.

George Marks

Benjamin Hickey (3rd from right) photographed by Eduardo Sarmiento

I am looking for nests and other natural objects from Louisiana to include in an installation for LPP. I hope to be collecting photographs of these objects on my research trips.

I am thinking a lot about this portrait at the New Orleans Museum of Art. François Fleischbein Portrait of a Free Woman of Color.  It is a captivating painting with wonderful detail. This image has become integral to the ideas in my work for this project since a young woman told me the story of her father wanting to go into St. Martin de Tours in Martinville, LA as a child.  He was not allowed in because of his skin color.  She went to the cathedral with her father when he was older and they walked freely into the sanctuary.  It was a very important moment for her father.  A symbol of liberty.

 New Orleans. Great museums: The Ogden, NOMA, National WWII Museum,  Louisiana State Museum and others. Sylvain Restaurant,  architecture,  beignets, antiques, fabulous people and stories.