If Eunice was our practice run, New Orleans was the night Louisiana Through Wild Eyes really took off.
Dave and I knew from the beginning that we wanted to bring the exhibition to New Orleans. We both live here, so having a hometown show was important to us.
Finding somewhere to have it was another story.
Finding the Right Space
We looked at a lot of different venues, and it was surprisingly difficult to find something that worked.
Galleries book up incredibly quickly, sometimes far in advance. Event spaces can be very expensive. And we couldn’t just rent any big room. We needed a LOT of wall space.
Between Dave’s photographs and my paintings, we had somewhere around 50 to 60 pieces of art to hang. We also needed a venue that would give us enough time to set everything up and take it all down. Hanging that much artwork, making sure the photograph and corresponding painting are together, getting the spacing right and making everything look cohesive takes time.
Eventually, we found our home for the New Orleans show at WYES Studios in Gentilly.
And it couldn’t have worked out better.
The people at WYES were incredibly kind and accommodating. We did pay to rent the event space, but they were very generous in working with us. Dave had some connections there, I knew a few people there, and everything just seemed to fall into place.
But while we were planning an art exhibition, something else was happening behind the scenes.
Turning the Project Into a Documentary
Dave was also creating a documentary about Louisiana Through Wild Eyes.
The finished film is about 27 minutes long and tells the story of the project, our collaboration and the process of taking Dave’s Louisiana wildlife photography and interpreting it through watercolor.
And Dave did a fantastic job.
As part of our partnership with WYES, the station would be able to air the documentary after our event. It eventually aired several times on WYES, introducing the project to people who hadn’t been able to attend the exhibition in person.
But before it went on television, we got to premiere it during our opening night.
One Night Only
Unlike our Eunice exhibition, which stayed up for a couple of months, WYES was a one-night-only event.
And what a night it was.
We estimate that around 140 people came through that evening. There were friends, family members, people who had been following the project and plenty of people we had never met before.
After the quiet opening in Eunice, seeing that many people walk through the doors was pretty incredible.
It also ended up being, by far, my most successful night financially. I sold around nine original paintings that evening.
Nine paintings. In one night.
As a professional artist, that’s a pretty amazing feeling.
But as exciting as the sales were, that isn’t really what I remember most.
I remember looking around and seeing so many people we knew. I remember meeting new people who were genuinely interested in the project. I remember watching people move from photograph to painting, comparing Dave’s interpretation of a moment through his camera with mine through watercolor.
It felt like people really understood what we were trying to do.
Seeing Our Story on the Big Screen
One of my favorite parts of the evening was premiering the documentary.
WYES has a theater room with a huge screen, so we were able to gather everyone together and watch the film the way you would watch a movie.
Seeing this project that Dave and I had been working on suddenly become a film on this giant screen was pretty surreal.
Afterward, Dave and I did a Q&A with the audience, which gave us a chance to talk more about the collaboration, the artwork and how the whole thing had come together.
It was just a really lovely evening.
There isn’t a much more sophisticated way to say it. Everything just worked.
The space worked. The crowd was wonderful. People loved the documentary. Paintings sold. Our families were there. Our friends were there. We met new people. And this little idea Dave and I had started to feel like something much bigger.
A Hard Night to Top
Looking back at all of the Louisiana Through Wild Eyes stops we’ve done, WYES is going to be a very hard night to top.
Eunice gave us the opportunity to figure out what we were doing. New Orleans showed us what the project could become.
And thankfully, that wasn’t the end of it.
The documentary went on to air multiple times on WYES, the exhibition continued traveling around Louisiana, and we got to keep introducing new audiences to these animals through two very different sets of eyes.
If you haven’t watched the Louisiana Through Wild Eyes documentary yet, I’ll include the YouTube link below.
Dave did a fantastic job telling the story, and after being part of that incredible night at WYES, I’m pretty proud of the story we have to tell.
We may be looking for another New Orleans stop for this show in 2027. Do you have a space for us? Contact me today.