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to see after flooding

The Art as Artifact catalog presents oil paintings by Dona Simons both before and after they were flooded by levee breaches following Hurricane Katrina. Some of these paintings included New Orleans musicians in undersea settings. The stains, tears and waterlines now on the canvases tell a visual story. In a sense, the work foretold its own fate.

Several years after Katrina, Simons created an installation/exhibition of the flooded work titled Art as Artifact. It included paintings hung on the studs in her cleaned and gutted former home and studio. Michael Juan Nunez played Dobro and Jeremy von Stilb filmed during the event.

Click here to watch the Empty House video
After this event, Simons created two paintings based on Michael Juan Nunez playing a song he wrote titled Empty House. She animated the evolution of these paintings and combined it with video filmed by Jeremy von Stilb into a three minute presentation.