09/01/2026
“feufollet”
slowly, i’m making my way back into sharing my artwork. my grief had me quiet for a while there, but i promise the therapy of making art never stopped ♡
this piece is called feufollet, named from cajun folklore stories of the mysterious orbs of light that hover and dance across louisiana bayous and swamps at night. a wandering flame, perhaps lost, that nobody can quite explain although many have tried.
i felt called to illustrate this foolish little fire and started in 2023. the piece is built digitally, from making stamps of my own photographs, mostly 35mm film photos of cypress tree silhouettes, and a lot of slow digital painting in procreate, a little at a time, over almost two years. ever so often a new creature would join the landscape.
a lot of my inspiration for this piece already came from dear chris stafford, a friend, neighbor, musician who shaped so much of our cajun music scene. when we lost him far too soon in 2024, i painted him into the center of the piece. chris, as always, enchanting people to the dance floor, i pictured him as the maestro on the bank of the swamp. conducting the fires with his melodies, freeing the once trapped souls, calling them up to dance and glow.
thanks for always giving us that space to shine and be free.
installed through Acadiana Center for the Arts art box program in october 2025 at general mouton & university. a small piece of our swamp and story, now living out in the open for lafayette to pass by ✧
