Last Call: Jazz Fest week 1 edition

Editor’s note: Southern Glossary is a web-based magazine experimenting with different approaches to arts coverage. With a blend of feature writing and blogging, Southern Glossary hopes to provide wide-ranging communication among artists, performers, and art-lovers across the region.

In the City that Care Forgot, sometimes it feels like you have all the time in the world — but sooner or later, exhibits close and the final curtain falls. Together, Southern Glossary and NolaVie provide an alternative to the standard arts review. Our monthly Last Call column will give readers fair warning and convincing reasons to catch an event before it’s lights out.

The artists and craftsmen of the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival may not generate enough anticipation to warrant their own cubes, and, let’s face it, no one is losing sleep trying to make their ideal route through the tents to hit up certain booths. However, a stroll through the stalls of Heritage Square can offer you a lot more than a way to walk off that extra helping of Crawfish Monica. Here’s a group of Southern artists you should seek out — appearing this weekend only at the Fairgrounds.

Stirling Barrett

“St. Louis Cathedral”

This young, local photographer and entrepreneur reinvigorates the well-plied trade of making art from recognizable New Orleans landmarks with his own personal process. Barrett takes several hundred photographs of his subject, then assembles them into multifaceted collages bursting with energy. The variance in angle, dimension, and light provide unique portraits of such famous structures as Commander’s Palace, Jaques-Imo’s, Bywater shotguns, and the St. Charles streetcar. Barrett is also the creative force behind the locally-based eyewear company Krewe du Optic. Tent F.

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Daryl Thetford

“Branding Day at the Bird Ranch”

Daryl Thetford, based in Chattanooga, TN, creates images culled from his travels across the country. They begin as photographs of anything that captures his imagination — wide rural landscapes, dense skylines, billboards, graffiti, coin-operated machines, and other artifacts of Americana. In his studio, he decides on a theme or topic, then dives into his archives of photographs for images that will contribute. After digitally carving out a black outline for the foreground, he uses closeups from other photographs to provide all of the colors. Dozens of photographs are compiled into the final image, which is printed on aluminum. Tent H.

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Karen Newgard

“Tall Bird Jars”

While she hails from Southern Louisiana, Karen Newgard now fires her pottery in the thriving River Arts District of Asheville, in North Carolina’s foothill mountains. She uses the centuries-old technique of sgraffito on her porcelain vases, bowls, mugs, and platters, carving multiple layers of clay to create clean, vivid images of contrasting colors. She draws on the flora and fauna motifs popular in Southern folk art, but her pottery has an idiosyncratic look derived from European and Japanese influences as well. Tent D.

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Rebecca Rebouche

“You Filled the Skies”

Rebecca Rebouche calls her imaginative paintings allegories of the natural world. Her art is full of miraculous trees, wise birds, floating ghosts dresses, and encouraging words. It’s storybook imagery in Southern Gothic color palettes, full of scenes that are felt rather than understood. A native of Franklin, LA, she now has her own space here in town on Dryades Street. Rebouche markets herself well, releasing work in seasonal groupings. This weekend she’ll unveil her spring collection The Wide Night, a group of paintings inspired by the moon, stars, and dreams.

*Check back next week for a look at the artists included in the second weekend of Jazz Fest.

Ryan Sparks is the editor of Southern Glossary. Follow him on Twitter or Instagram.