This June 21, GRN will be celebrating 20 years of environmental stewardship in the Gulf with a Summer Solstice Party in partnership with Global Green USA, The Green Project, and Concordia: Community Centered Planning and Design, who are also commemorating decades of service this year. The Summer Solstice Celebration is our way of saying a collective thank you to our supporters with champagne, watermelon, and live music. We will be auctioning a series of unique rain barrels painted by more than 30 New Orleans artists, representing a community-based collaboration between sustainable storm protection efforts and local culture. View and bid on the rain barrels starting June 18th, and join us for the culmination of the auction at Saturday’s Solstice Party. The following is a short preview of six partnering artists and their one-of-a-kind rain barrels.Karel Sloane-BoekbinderKarel Sloane-Boekbinder is an abstract expressionist painter who has lived in New Orleans since 2001. She has been actively engaged in coastal restoration since the BP disaster, winning two awards during the Art Spill: Disaster, Art, Activism, and Recovery juried art show, and most recently directing an art and performance show called Impressions, which explored the intersections of impressionist art, environment, and coastal land loss in Louisiana. Her eye-catching impressionist rain barrel portrays a sunrise juxtaposed with a sunset. Pippin Frisbie-CalderBorn in Hammond, Louisiana and raised in coastal Maine, Pippin-Frisbie Calder is a printmaker who creates visual representations of the diverse and threatened ecosystems of the Gulf Coast. Striking in scale and intricacy, her prints raise awareness about human environmental impact on our coastal wetlands and preserve a collective memory of natural spaces in Louisiana. Frisbie-Calder’s rain barrel combines woodcut print and wheat paste to depict a mangrove swamp. Jayeesha DuttaJayeesha Dutta is a tri-coastal Bengali American cultural organizer and visual artist, born in Mobile, raised in New York, aged in Oakland and now proud to call New Orleans home. She currently coordinates a diverse and collaborative effort, the Gulf Future Coalition, housed at the Gulf Restoration Network, focused on supporting Gulf Coast communities for environmental and community restoration in the aftermath of the BP oil drilling disaster. Dutta’s rain barrel is entitled “Endangered Elements” and aims to represent the elements in our environment most at risk from extractive industries and society’s excessive consumerism: our air, water and earth. Each element is symbiotic yet distinct, which is reflected in the aesthetics of the rain barrel’s design.Skip NOLASkip NOLA is a versatile painter who creates imaginative portraits and large-scale murals with a singular sense of artistic musicality. His paintings are uniquely interactive, often matching brush strokes with melody and rhythm, which contributes to the improvisational and free form nature of his pieces. Skip’s rain barrel exhibits this impressionistic quality, representing a moonlit French Quarter scene. Greg CreasonGreg Creason’s artistic life began at a young age, when he developed a penchant for replicating cartoon images with colored pencils. Citing Norman Rockwell as an artistic influence, Creason has maintained this realist method of illustration in his professional career as a painter and owner of Creason’s Fine Art Gallery on Royal St in the French Quarter. Creason’s rain barrel ties together vegetable imagery with a unifying theme of love and peace. Tracy JarmonIncorporating spiritual symbolism into a diverse range of painting and collage, Tracy Jarmon is a life-long New Orleanian whose art is informed by firsthand experiences. His art has been featured in many New Orleans restaurants, clubs, and galleries, and was highlighted as part of the Times-Picayune’s Art for Art’s Sake “must see” list in 2005. With his rain barrel, Jarmon uses a vibrant color palette to illustrate symbolic imagery against a New Orleans skyline.These rain barrels along with many more are available on our online auction site and will be presented at the Summer Solstice Celebration at City Park’s Peristyle. Hope to see you there!Sarah Holtz is GRN’s Development Associate.
