NOLA RISING

08 April 2008

NoLA Rising Donates Numerous Pieces to the Firefighters of St. Bernard

NoLA Rising brought the following pieces, plus more, to Chief Thomas Stone and Glenn Ellis of the St. Bernard Fire Department yesterday for the firefighters in St. Bernard Parish who are finally getting back into their homes. NoLA Rising wishes them the best of all worlds and salute them for all of their hard work. Those of us at NoLA Rising hopes that it helps makes their houses more like home!

Artwork from the NoLA Rising Group of Artists Being Donated to the St. Bernard Fire Department for the week of Mar 30, 2008

(Photo of Chief Stone and Capt Ellis is by Gary Perez of Dragonfly Photography - www.dragonflyphotography.org)

01 June 2007

NOLA RISING (The Concept)

NOLA RISING PROJECT

I have decided to undertake a public art project to spread across the city. The idea was spawned from two different ideas that I have opted to merge. The first was a photo I had taken last year of a building that was on the corner of Tchoupitoulas and Napoleon. Someone, presumably the owner or tenant, spray-painted "NOLA RISING" on the building. The photo ended up being great and has become a maxim of mine (if a thought behind an idea can imply the totality of a maxim).

Second was a group of random paintings that someone had strung up in the Marigny on a huge electrical pole. I wanted to try and climb the electrical structure to get one of the paintings, but thought better of it at eight in the morning. So, in lieu of taking art, I decided to leave art behind.

So far, I have given NOLA RISING drawings in two different areas of town. The first was in the Lower Ninth Ward in the middle of a great new vacuum of neighborhood space created by the breaking levees flooding out people's homes. Not just flooding, but breaking apart and destroying. It is in this neighborhood that I feel the spirit of New Orleans is needed first and foremost. The second area I have started is in my own back yard (not literally) around the Lower Garden District, Coliseum Square area, and the Irish Channel.

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What People Say...

CHRIS ROSE (nola): "It's all got a very Don Quixote feel to it, a lone wolf braying into the wilderness... It's art for art's sake. And for sanity's sake as well." & "NoLA Rising, a ragtag band of insurgent art missionaries who post artwork in public places as far and wide across the region as possible."

ANGELA PATE (nola): "New Orleans still needs so much help, but the people of NOLA are bringing back the bohemian, artistic atmosphere that makes me love it so much. Rex has become almost a cult leader, bringing NOLA back beyond just the infrastructure, but, more importantly, maybe, to it’s heart and soul."

Idiot the Wise a.k.a. INSPIRE (Tel Aviv): "If NOLA rises again, then its from the organized efforts of this guy...a true public art hero..."

A.J. (nola): "One day while traversing the muck of damage, alone in my car, I looked over and suddenly glimpsed a ray of color. A perfectly small square of color that simply stated Joy and then a short block away, another that read simply Hope. My car grinded to a slow halt in the street and I wept those post Katrina tears we've all shed following this time by a smile. Not a tiny grin but, a large and powerful giant size smile. "

Killian Doherty (Ireland): "Much to the disbelief of the destitute citizens of New Orleans, it became wholly apparent that the loss of the public realm was not due to the flooding, but to the governments' re-appropriation of it, when backs were turned.

Within this specter of a military dictatorship imposed to 'control' people' , ReX a local artist read the chasm between people’s physical disenfranchisement from their city and the unbridled appropriation of it by state as intolerable. ReX attempted to stitch this chasm closed with a humanist and practical intervention back into public space. 3,000 street signs were arduously hand- drawn, painted and affixed, to intersections throughout the city. ReX tried to weaved a sense of order back into the neglected fabric of New Orleans; his humanistic treatment gave people hope, allowing them to re orientate themselves again, empowering them to reclaim New Orleans, their home, amidst the neglect and oppression. It became a cultural movement for social justice."

KELLEY (detroit-ish): "This is great work!!!"

SINA (tucson): "Sunshine and art and happiness, the city, the soul will win...look how much more contagious NoLA Rising's efforts have become..."

MAGS (nola native): "Projects like NOLA Rising are only trying to spread a little love and joy via art to a depressed, beat-down population..."

VIRTUAL SHOCK (nola): "...it’s always heartwarming to see one of these signs."

DR. D. LEE (mobile): "...a rare and unique commodity."