NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA– Many of us have found peace during the coronavirus pandemic by getting from under our socially distanced roofs and embracing the fresh air of outside. If art is an outward expression of the emotions inside humanity, surely with all the heaviness this year has brought, art matters more than usual.
Lindsay Glatz is with the Arts Council of New Orleans and says, “public artwork is so important, particularly in the confines of the COVID-19 pandemic. It allows us to go out into public space and view something that is beautiful. This mural in particular shows our strength and resilience, something we need to share with the community right now. It’s really a unique talent that muralist have that is so large scale and yet when they are producing the work, they have to be so close up to the mural. Danae did all of this free hand and so it’s her imagination coming to life.”
Unframed is a collaboration between the Helis Foundation and the Arts Council of New Orleans, to produce eight murals from both international and local artists. The artists are given the freedom to create their own pieces and concept.
Danae Brissonnet is a muralist and puppeteer from Canada. Brissonnet’s mural is recently completed on the outside of the Embassy Suites Hotel in downtown New Orleans. She spent approximately three weeks up in the rafters with the birds hovering over New Orleans to create her mural titled “Ignite.”
Ignite draws from many concepts including mythology, the natural topography and fauna of Louisiana, as well as it’s history, culture and social issues. Brissonnet sums up her experience saying, “I think the world around me gives me the color that I will use. I think the overall energy and global energy of this year is affecting everyone and that’s why my painting is called ignite. This fire needs to burn again, as the hope in humanity.”
Brissonnet has murals all over the world and says she is glad to add New Orleans to the list. “Ignite,” has a multi-eyed crawfish, humanoid fire figures that march into the spots of a civil rights-black panther and a pelican that saves houses from the flood waters on it’s wings.
The beauty of art is that the passers by will be able to come up with their own interpretation, but the overall message from the Unframed project is that when humanity comes together, that is when the picture is made beautiful.
