Page 37 - South Mississippi Living - September, 2017

of an
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During her senior year at Ole Miss in 2011, Broussard wrote a thesis about hats and created hats for a show. After graduation, she owned Prima Donna boutique in Biloxi where she sold her hats along with vintage and new clothes for four years.
in Gulfport’s
Fishbone Alley
— it’s the ‘Wave of
Samsara’ which consists
of green circles forming
an optical illusion to make it
look like it’s moving. “I went from building props to painting a 40-by-15-
foot street art mural,” she noted. “I like variety and keeping a lot of projects going; that’s what keeps my juices flowing.”
An invitation from a Mardi Gras krewe to make props for balls and floats pulled Broussard back into a more intense relationship with art. “Art is my life purpose; I create with passion,” she says. “I want to live as an artist.”
Not content to just create hats, this artist also paints and makes pottery. She painted one of the large murals
Broussard has done a pottery series and is now working on a mixed-media painting series that incorporates fish relics. “I never wanted to do Coast art,” she says, “but a friend took me fishing and I picked up some clean fish bones on Horn Island. I wanted to use them and when I got home, I was ready to paint coastal.”
more clean and elegant,” she said. “I’m now picking up some skeletons that are not so clean, and I may learn some taxidermy skills.”
baby steps to see what unfolds. I like to plant seeds and have several different eggs in my basket,” she added.
Two weeks later she was asked to paint the Fishbone Alley mural, which she saw as good karma. “Now I’m painting coastal but it’s different coastal art.”
Broussard is always ready for new inspiration and trying new creative endeavors. With her hats, she first made traditional hats, then did a series of head dresses, and now she’s making fascinators and a little bit of all types. “I need new inspiration,” she said. “Each hat is a little different and tells its own story.”
Looking ahead, Broussard plans to work on two large wall murals, one in Biloxi and one in Bay St. Louis. “It’s exciting to start new projects. I get in the zone,” she said. “I like to see people enjoy my art.”
Her three-dimensional art is built up with sheetrock mud and uses fish bones and skulls. “I tried painting them colors, but
it didn’t work; white looks best,
She says the hats don’t always have feathers — although many do — and now she’s using real gem stones and fish skeletons. “As for what’s next, I’m taking
The daughter of Norbie and Rhonda Broussard, the artist grew up in Woolmarket and has a sister, Brice. “I feel like God has put it out for me this year
to do bodies of work. I’m seeing things for the first time,” she said, “and I’m having an internal awakening.”
WAVE OF SAMSARA 40-by-15-foot mural in Gulport’s Fishbone Alley.
228.363.9385 | www.primadonnavintageboutique.com
Mardi Gras Ball props.