Page 68 - South Mississippi Living - August, 2016

ARTS no bones about it
OF THE
Ohr Pop-Up Exhibit and Pop-Up Burger Night
story by Daisy Karam-Read and photos courtesy of Ann Madden
Anew exhibit, “Beauty
of the Beast,” will be
on display August 18, 19 and 20 at the Ohr- O’Keefe Museum of
Art on the second floor Center for Ceramics. The opening reception will be held
on August 19, from 6:00-7:30 P.M.
This upcoming show features two Mississippi Gulf Coast artists, painter Michelle Allee and photographer Ann Madden. A collaborative display, the works celebrate the artists’ responses to the aftermath of Hurricane Isaac, in which tens of thousands of dead nutria washed up on our beaches. The storm flooded the rodents’ natural habitats.
Michelle Allee, an artist from Pass Christian whose primary medium is acrylic paints, is largely self-taught. She has, however, also studied internationally. Although she’s usually most fascinated by the human form, in this exhibit she turns her attention to the water rats who succumbed to the wrath of natural elements. “I feel it
is the right thing to do to honor these beautiful creatures that were taken by Hurricane Isaac. I have always loved the notion of turning trash into treasure, but creating this body of work was deeper and more profound than that for me. These rodents, although considered pests by most locals, are a part of the cycle of life,” said Allee.
Shortly after the beaches were cleared and made accessible to the
public, Allee spotted tiny snow-white objects while walking on the beach
in Pass Christian. Peering closely,
she realized they were skulls that
had been thoroughly picked clean, probably by crabs. Two red teeth remained attached to each skull. Allee had always been fascinated by the skeletons of animals, and immediately began collecting all she could.
When she was taking a hand-building ceramics class with instructor/artist Stacey Johnson at the Ohr-O’Keefe Museum, an idea struck Michelle.
She decided to give these skulls their “walking legs,” and created a group of pieces that she regards as an homage to the remnants of the lives lost in the storm. She calls these pieces “nutria people.” She applied to the Mississippi Arts Commission for a grant. This project is supported in part by funding from the Mississippi Arts Commission, a state agency, and the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal agency.
She approached Ann Dinwiddie Madden, a photographer whose work she admires. Madden has studied
at the Maryland Institute College of Art, as well as in Paris, Washington, D.C., and New York, but is based in Bay St. Louis. She has exhibited at the Center for Fine Art Photography in
Ft. Collins, Colo., A. Smith Gallery in Johnson City, Texas, Mr. Henry’s in Washington, D.C., the Creative Edge MAC show at the Mockingbird Cafe in Bay St. Louis, multiple juried shows at
BEAST
68 SOUTH MISSISSIPPI Living • August 2016
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