New Orleans road trip - Day 13 - New Orleans

Took the KOA shuttle into town and the driver let us off at the Ogden Art Gallery. (When asking On Star - Aimee and Greg have it in their truck - for directions to the KOA campsite yesterday, the operator asked us how to spell KOA, reply was K-O-A, we all laughed).

Its in a large modern building opposite the huge WW2 Museum complex.

Me, Knife, Diamond and Flower by James Surls, sits outside.

As with most of my visits to Art Galleries I am going to post pictures of the pieces that appealed to me. No particular organization at all.

The sculptures were on the staircases and landings and accessible to be touched. This was a tall piece of amber glass, cut away on one side to resemble 2 trees.

All of the identification signs indicate, with a graphic, which of the southern states the artist comes from.

Red Poppy, stoneware by George Alexander.

Close up of  Stormy by MaPo Kinnord.

I wasn't the only one enjoying taking photos of the sculptures.

This exhibit was of still and movie photography and Aimee and I were surprised by how much we enjoyed it. Each room had the works of 1 or 2 artists and explanations of the themes, in their own words, along with biographies.

Today you will be with me in paradise by Maury Gortemiller. I am really not sure why the cross, in cheese slices, on baked earth appealed to me but I actually liked all of this artists images. His explanation was that, as a child, he understood the bible best from looking at the illustrations so he wanted to illustrate the bible passages with modern symbolism.

iHome by RaMell Ross.

This room was particularly effective. Photos of oil refineries, dark and brooding, all mounted on oil barrel lids. Valero Bill Greehey, Refinery Number 3, Corpus Cristi, TX by David Emitt Adams.

Next was a room of paintings by a prolific artists whose love was to fish and hunt and paint the scenes from those expeditions. Untitled by Newton Howard.

Listen you can hear the frogs by Newton Howard.

There was a room of children's art work from project where artists worked with particular grade schools.

There were some older paintings; Bayou Teche Country 1 by Alexander John Drysdale, 1927.

I particularly liked the work of this artist and can't really define why. Perhaps the naive method, use of pencil ....Heron over Pines by Walter Anderson, 1935.

Thistle by Walter Anderson

Pelicans by Walter Anderson

Cypress Swamp, Caddo Lake, Louisiana by Florence McClung.

Leaving the gallery we headed towards the French Quarter to meet Greg for lunch. Through  the Central Business District (CBD) there are old buildings surrounded by towering new ones.

Greg had spent the morning at the Katrina exhibit. This is Aimee's Crawfish Benedict for lunch.

We boarded the Natchez at 2 for our 2:30 cruise. The other paddle-wheeler, The Creole Queen, passed us. She is not driven by steam.

The commentator announced that we could tour the engine room so I went down at took a look at the boilers, Thelma and Louise.

I watched him, responding to an order from the bridge, move this from Stop to Half and everything started moving. I couldn't believe that they let us this near all these moving parts.

Its a very busy river and port (400 ocean going cargo ships per month)

The commentary was full of facts and figures. At the bend of New Orleans the river is 200ft deep. The boats can only get up to Baton Rouge before it gets too shallow for them.

The Mississippi drains all the way from Saskatchewan and Alberta, via the Missouri River. The water from its source takes 3 months to get to the mouth.

It was cold up on the top deck but gave us great views.

We passed through the area with a smell of molasses from the sugar refinery

and the smell of gas from the vast oil refineries.

The ships can anchor in the river for free, only having to pay port charges when they dock.

The banks of the river are lined with barges and tugs, waiting to transport goods up and down the river or out to the ocean going vessels.

Coming into our dock this guy peers over the side and uses a megaphone to instruct the bridge.

We walked in the French Quarter until it was time to catch the shuttle back. This shot for my niece, Heather, as she was collecting pictures of Vespas last year in Mallorca.

And this one for Pam and her love of everything Dachshund