A toast to the art of what was

Susan Hotard, ‘Absorbed in Money,’ oil on canvas

It doesn’t really seem possible, but there you are: Next Monday, should I forget to go check my front lawn, as I expect I will, there will be no Times-Picayune. And, although much has been written and spoken about the move to a three-day-a-week paper, it just has seemed that this sad reality would happen sometime way in the future.

A number of New Orleans-area artists, including former and current members of the newspaper’s art staff, recognizing that the future is now, have crafted new works for a group exhibition that honors, remembers and enshrines what our prize-winning daily paper has meant to this community and to their lives.

Through photography and paintings in oil, watercolor, encaustic and mixed media, their works explore the myriad ways the T-P has been an integral part of our daily lives in a new exhibition at The Garden District Gallery, on Washington Avenue steps from Commander’s Palace Restaurant.

Jacques Soulas, ‘Cup of Joe,’ oil on canvas

While this group invitational exhibition is being mounted in conjunction with Art for Art’s Sake, the citywide art openings scheduled for Oct. 6, The Times-Picayune: An Iconic Presence in Our Daily Lives, can be seen in a special preview on Sunday, Sept. 30, from 3 to 6 p.m.

So come lift a glass in a toast to what was: to the extraordinary photography of John McCusker, Bevil Knapp and Ellis Lucia; the Pulitzer Prize-winning political lampooning of former T-P cartoonist Mike Lukovich; and the paintings of Jacques Soulas, Carol Peebles, Kris Wenschuh, Kat Fitzpatrick; Claude Ellender, Patti Adams, Suzie Baker, Susan Hotard, Don Rhodes and Pamela Marshall.

It will be a commemoration to remember.

Carol Peebles, ‘A Grand Tradition,’ charcoal on paper

The Times-Picayune:
An Iconic Presence
in Our Daily Lives

What: A preview showing of a group exhibition of works referencing The Times-Picayune.

Where: The Garden District Gallery, 1332 Washington Ave., New Orleans

When: Sunday, September 30, 3-6 p.m.

Sharon Litwin is president of NolaVie.