Old Photographs, New Friends: The Art of Jennifer Burton

Fur Coat

In The Woods 

Bear Hug

The cover art for the Winter 2013 issue of Passages North is big and astounding. A friendly black bear stands with one paw around Olive, another around Edwin.  I'm guessing he's friendly, at least, and I'm also guessing Edwin and Olive's names. Jennifer Burton paints them in bright mustard yellow, the bear in dashing black, pulling from old photographs and the need for a little levity.  I love the interview up at Passages North, in which editor Cameron Witbeck speaks to the artist about her inspiration, past ideas of future endeavors, and the relationship between people and nature in her paintings. The coppery reds of "Fur Coat," the subtle pines and bleached figures of "In The Woods," the blanched looks of the pair in "Bear Hug." Truly, the humor and sensibility in these pieces sends me!

Passages North Interview with Jennifer Burton

The Bathtub

The Bathtub.

Hushpuppy, her daddy Wink, Jean Battiste, Miss Bathsheba, the wild Aurochs. Beasts of the Southern Wild. Thinking on all y'all tonight. Despite my friends who disliked your story, I still hold on to liking it. It's a good story. Without being overly philosophical, by responding to the narrative with my heart instead of my mind, I lean into a little girl's words of wisdom and courage and spirit, and I feel glad.

Beasts of the Southern Wild

Feufollet - the storytelling in the music

Feufollet - the sweetest Acadian band around - has an album out that moves into new territory while keeping to traditional standards.  The songs of En Couleurs have an old feel to them, with moments that are lovely and new.  After listening over and over to the album, it becomes clear that the arrangements move through old patterns, in turn evoking new ones.  The instruments - fiddle, guitar, accordion, bass, drum, glockenspiel, omnichord - and the voices blend in a way that reveals the deep allegiance to Louisiana and all things French Acadian.  The foundation and tradition of Cajun songwriting and performing is revealed and then opens up into dimensions that are quirky, beautiful, somehow sad and imperfect.  But what seems imperfection is in essence a new kind of truth.  The old crosscut with the contemporary results in a new kind of Cajun music, chansons colored with reeling, playful attitudes.  

And here, inside of these songs, is the kind of storytelling that you can dance to.  Sad narratives set to lively music, surreal and longing tales surrounded by the haunting sounds of fiddle and lead singer Edmiston's layered, ever-changing vocal chords.  To understand the stories, you don't necessarily have to know French, though that certainly makes the experience all the sweeter.

Merci, merci!  A beautiful album by a group of talented, inspired musicians!

Anna Laura Edmiston - lead singer, guitar 
Chris Stafford - vocalist, fiddle
Chris Segura - fiddle
Philippe Billeaudeaux - bass
Michael Stafford - drums
Andrew Toups - keyboard

Au Fond du Lac

The Making of Feufollet's En Couleurs