Click "Play" above to see and hear artist Lori Gordon forage through piles of debris in the woods where her home and studio once stood, seeking bits and pieces to use for her post-Katrina works of art.
BAY ST. LOUIS, Miss. -- At first, artist Lori Gordon combed through the wreckage of her neighborhood with trepidation, fearing that she would come across her husband’s cat or, worse, a human body. But that didn’t happen, and over time she came to find comfort and sanity in the activity — salvaging bits and pieces from the mountains of rubble in the woods after Katrina swept away the home, studio and treehouse retreat she shared with her husband, David Wheeler, a wood worker.
Replacing the body of artwork she lost in the storm is impossible, and replacing their home and studio is out of reach for now. But Gordon’s peregrinations have given her a toehold in the future, as she creates new mixed media pieces from the mud-caked fragments she has salvaged from the rubble.
“These collages — they’re not to everybody’s taste,” Gordon says. But she finds these works at very least generate conversation, and have largely received a positive reception in this arts-rich community.
The series is both literally and metaphorically composed of pieces of the storm, she says. "It is my way of trying to make sense of a senseless situation, and to find some peace in the middle of grief and loss."
At first, she was merely focused on finding things she and her husband had lost. She salvaged pieces of paintings and prints that she found wedged in trees or buried in the mud. Some turned up several blocks from where the house had stood. She picked up pieces of hardware from furniture that was otherwise destroyed. She came across the small stained-glass piece that had been in her front door. It was intact, sitting on the bare foundation, even though the door and the house were nowhere in sight.
She has run across fragments of art supplies she had accumulated over the past four decades, but the most valuable among them have eluded her.
“This is what kills me,” Gordon says, as she stops and picks up a plastic bag full of colored rubber bands. “I keep thinking I’m going to find one of these zip-lock bags that had all my turquoise in it or my amber — I had this beautiful Baltic amber — and instead I find my bag of rubber bands!”
“The other funny thing is that I have found so many paintings that were really shit paintings that I was going to paint over because I didn’t like them. What I really wanted to find was the painting I did of my dad who died 15 years ago.”
Click "Play" to hear Lori Gordon talk about the inspiration behind her artwork.
Nearly four dozen new works
Nonetheless, she has accumulated many treasures, and created nearly four dozen new works, some of them already sold through one of the few galleries to reopen in Bay St. Louis.’
Friends have opened up their own ruined shops and properties to her search for useful debris. She also peruses the wreckage that has been bulldozed into piles alongside the roads in the Bay St. Louis, Waveland area. Bits of dolls, picture frames, book covers and old photos all find their way into her work.
She gets excited about scraps that would be bypassed as more junk by most people. “Now this, this is a great piece of tin,” she says, picking a rusty relic out of the ditch. “The texture is good. … Look at all that different tonal stuff there.”
Some of the pieces are suggestive of the storm itself, including pieces of draped pieces of tattered fabric, like the remnants of clothes and bedding seen hanging in trees throughout the storm-stricken area. Others works include powerful symbols, such as photographs or images of eyes, angels and crucifixes that tend to elicit emotional responses and religious reflection. Some, says Gordon, simply mingle visual elements that work together, drawn from the detritus of the Katrina.
Aside from creating art, there’s little else normal about Gordon’s daily existence. She lives in a small trailer she bought on a parcel of land in outlying Bay St. Louis that owned by friends who also lost their home and business and uses what was their garage — a building with a gaping hole in the roof — for her studio. With the friends, a couple living at the same site in another trailer, they cook together outside.
Like many others, she spends a good deal of her time sorting through FEMA requirements and insurance settlements. Like other artists who remain in the community, she has applied for grants to continue her work.
Gordon and Wheeler’s home and studio were badly underinsured for Katrina. They had about $70,000 in flood insurance. That doesn't begin to replace the house, studio and treehouse, and their contents. Gordon's art supplies alone were worth $30,000, she estimates.
Insurers don't value unsold art
And there is essentially no insurance compensation for the lost artworks. Insurance companies cover only the cost of materials, Gordon says, so works that she can sell for hundreds of dollars are worth only a few dollars in insurance terms.
To save money, they aren’t planning to sign up for their property to be cleared by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, because they hope to salvage lumber for rebuilding.
Wheeler has been working for friends in Minnesota since a few weeks after the storm. He needed to get out of the disaster zone, and they needed the money, Gordon says.
When he does return, he will likely do most of the reconstruction himself, but it won’t be cheap, even so. With new flood elevations expected to be adopted in the area, the house will need to be at least six feet higher than the existing slab, they figure. But the final elevation requirements for insurance aren't expected for up to nine months.
Meantime, for Gordon, art is a source of income, a psychological lifeline and her contribution to the community as it tries to shake off the nightmare of Katrina.
“A lot of this is for me,” says Gordon. “I have to do this kind of stuff as much as I need to eat and sleep. But the other thing that I am trying to do, and that I’m very happy about is, it’s a part of the building process, and I want people to be able to look and say ‘look there’s something that’s being created out of all this rubble, out of all this destruction.’ Anything that can give us any kind of hope is well worth pursuing.”
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Lori, as a fellow artist,I find your creations quite beautiful. I wish you the best. Taking something horrible and turning it into beauty is an awsome thing.
Please disregard that comment from a person who obviously doesn't have a heart or soul.
Sandra Breaux (Sent Nov 12, 2005 8:05:36 PM)
pleas..lets just let the feeling flow..all and those who have not commented? No time to waste! Newest efforts for gordons community,along with her pull together fellow community resident; Jewlery Artist: Anderson..They need Registared Voters in any state, county, & city(of age voters) for their Coastal Community Watch Email is: info@coastalcommunitywatch.org You Goooooo Girls!!!!!! :) There is the disappearance of whole states. Never been there, but by goss if i ever am able to? I know that i could help some how with the comments crowd!! Go with the, " Whole World," in my Hands! Yes Thanks Tee
Terri Jeanettee Devine, Stockton, California (Sent Nov 12, 2005 8:50:36 PM)
I am so glad to see an artist finding meaning in this devistating event. As many have already said, Lori's work is an inspiration on so many levels.
As innapropriate as it may seem to those who lost so much, the relation between Lorie's artistic process and the process of natural systems is a link missing from so much of the news coverage about Hurricane Katrina. Her work reminds us that the laws of nature are dependent on the cyclic process of destruction & renewal. It is a fundamental part of life itself- there can be no life without it. We humans tend to forget this and Lori's work brings us back to that place we all share.
Lindsay Smith, Eugene, Oregon (Sent Nov 13, 2005 7:40:10 PM)
CUSS???? Hell, I am a dear friend of Lori's and a fellow artist. You have not heard anything yet! Those of us who have lost our homes, cars, studios, (and some who have lost pets and family members) have used words we had not heard since high school.........and we use them daily sometimes!!!!!
Julie Nelson, Kiln (formerly Waveland) MS. (Sent Nov 13, 2005 10:01:51 PM)
Dearest Lori - I bought a small piece of yours on Saturday - the one with the bright orange feather. When we get walls again, I'll have to find a place of honor for it. I'd been to BSL about 10 days after the storm and heard you were "OK" (whatever that means anymore - I was just happy to hear you had survived). I heard why we missed seeing you on Saturday and my heart is with you, and am hoping that these hard times will give way to better times before long. I have loved your mixed media pieces since you began showing them - and your new work is truly inspired. I am sure that the pleasure they will bring will live long after the memories of this nightmare have faded to grey. I hope your daughter and husband are doing well - and that you will find more of your treasures. I hope to see you again in BSL soon. always, Kathe Newcomb
Kathe Newcomb, Diamondhead, MS (Sent Nov 14, 2005 1:10:32 AM)
mrs gordon wampler:
im just curious if youve went back & read the comments people have posted about your stupid & careless comments. i cheered w/ each one. you really should be ashamed of yourself. is your life lacking not one single sin that would entitle you to cast a stone at this woman? i highly doubt it. you understand that it isnt your place to judge your fellow man for their reaction in their time of crisis. when my 45 brother died of cancer, i cursed the world out loud. grief is a very powerful thing & you nor i have the right to admonish people for how they deal w/ it. her words didnt hurt you, im sure you soon forgot about the story & its content, but im sure all the people who read your post wont soon let you forget it.
d kemmer (Sent Nov 14, 2005 11:57:14 AM)
Dear Lori Gordon...you are amazing. I also applaud you for "calling it like it is". I am in Phoenix Arizona....we have to survive 115 degree days but that is all. you are remarkable and I hope you truly know that. I wish you would put up a web site...(or did I miss it.
ALSO MRS WAMPLER....YOU ARE TRULY AMAZING IN YOUR JUDGEMENT OF OTHERS....GOD HELP YOU IF YOUR LIFE IS TORN APART AND YOU SAY "DANG IT" TOO LOUD. I understand you have your values...but don't kick people when they are down.
Lori...Where Can I buy somethin
Tom H. (Sent Nov 16, 2005 7:26:20 PM)
Lori, You are (and always have been) an inspiration. The courage you have to allow us all a view into your personal catastropy and the beauty that you are able to create from such a devastation. Although I haven't seen you in years (or E for that matter) I think about you often and I am so glad you are and will be OK. Let me know if you or E are up in the Denver area would love to see you.
Shelly (Beth's daughter)
Shelly, Denver, Co (Sent Nov 17, 2005 7:09:08 AM)
Create on, Lori Gordon, create on! As a fellow artist in Indiana, I completely understand the absolute need to create. It's a necessity to artists, like breathing. Things will get better and you'll have maintained your personal sanity because of your art. So, all I can say is, create on Lori Gordon, create on!!!!
Vicki Moyer, Frankfort, Indiana (Sent Nov 17, 2005 10:29:57 AM)
lori, your assemblege art is incredible, so insightful as well and i know healing you as you do it. do you have a collection box somewhere that i can donate great finds. i too am an artist with a passion for treasure hunting and have seen so many great "pieces" in the rubble. i would love to contribute...just let me know where the drop off is.
michelle allee pass christian, mississippi (Sent Nov 17, 2005 2:03:34 PM)
My only request: Where can I get some of this art? It is awesome! I am from Vicksburg, MS; and my father is a Corp of Engineers architect working for MEMA (MS Emergency Management Assoc.) in Newton, MS. I would love to have one of these great pieces of art and to support a fellow Mississippian at the same time. Is there an email address? Good luck and God bless.
Sarah; Sardis (and Vicksburg), MS (Sent Nov 17, 2005 4:23:44 PM)
Lori-
I think it is wonderful that you create these touching pieces of beauty ( and they ARE) out of the demolition of your life and the lives of people around you. Sometimes the translation of beauty from unglyness is healing and can in some small way make things bearable and understandable. Keep on and don't let the small minded and small souled ones hurt you.
Blessings!
Christa , Chicago IL (Sent Nov 18, 2005 1:56:20 PM)
This is not a comment, just a question--I wish to know where I could see and buy your art. I especially like your collages that have a spiritual nature. Looking for bits and pieces is such a personal liking, but if you could tell me what you "need" while I junk shop I could keep an eye out.
Martha A. Wood, Gulfport, Ms. (Sent Nov 18, 2005 11:59:17 PM)
Hi Lori,
I too, would be honored to have some of that cuss art. Do you have a website? If not, maybe someone out there will help you build one.
Love you...
Mark Guest, formerly of Waveland, temping in Greenville, SC (Sent Nov 20, 2005 9:06:04 PM)
I am not much into art per se...most is over my head.
but....I think this rubble art looks great!
B, Salt Lake City, Utah (Sent Nov 21, 2005 2:42:28 PM)
I admire your art and your efforts to heal as you collect pieces of your life for others to see and purchase. I can see your project done on a much larger scale with your collections traveling the U.S. for others to experience. Or, you and other artists on the Mississippi Gulf Coast could collaborate your efforts into a grand fund raising project to benefit the Katrina recovery. Especially since your part of the coast isn't getting the attention that New Orleans has. Do you have a website yet for people to purchase your art? The next step may be Oprah! Go for it!!
Tracy, Pinellas Park, FL (Sent Nov 23, 2005 11:07:09 AM)
Lori:
I just can't imagine what you and your neighbors have been through, god bless you. My heart felt like a stone to see the devasation, but your work is not only helping you cope and to heal, it is an inspiration to us all, and I'm sure to the many others who have suffered along side you.
Charlie Vandemoer, Wakefield, RI (Sent Nov 23, 2005 5:31:37 PM)
Lori:
I can't imagine how your life has been turned upside down with the loss of your brother, your home, and livelihood--it is almost too much to conceive. Yet, your art and your soul have survived with grace, dignity, humor, and the ability to create art from chaos! My thoughts and prayers are with you and your family for all those reasons. Keep your face to the sunshine.
with common South Dakotan roots,
Kristinn
(Watertown)
Kristinn Heinrichs, Phoenix, Arizona (Sent Nov 24, 2005 2:37:17 PM)
Please let me know where I can purchase a piece of your art. We spent each years vacation on the gulf coast and our hearts go out to all.
Sue Zitterich (Sent Nov 25, 2005 11:12:49 AM)
As a fellow survivor of losses, I commend Lori and all others who continue to rise above the ruin and who are trying to make some kind of sense of it all. I am at a loss for words in trying to express the admiration and respect I feel towards all those whose lives were litarally turned upside down by Katrina. My thoughts and my prayers are with you all.
Norma Burke, Hollywood, Florida (Sent Nov 25, 2005 11:55:31 AM)
Lori, of all the local pieces of art I lost (along with my beloved Waveland home) your painting of Bird City haunts me the most. It can never be replaced.
Mary, Avery Island, LA (Sent Nov 25, 2005 5:57:46 PM)
Please , has any one found where this art can be seen and purchsed... What a way to help to begin to heal!! It is all so heart breaking, nothing will ever be the same again..
In my prayers..
Carolyn Chandler, Turners Falls, MA. (Sent Nov 27, 2005 3:09:46 PM)
i just want to say my family and i had to move to illinois, i miss my home on the gulf coast,i am very home sick and in the future will be contacting you for a art peice ,this show the type of folks that live on the caost they have spirit, and i miss that here in southern illinois,the gulf was and still is beautiful what makes the gulf such a wonderful place is it people,not casinos,beaches and stately home these i am sure will return as will i all of you who havent been to miss. gulf coast ,go and see the beauty the people!
virgil darnell (Sent Nov 28, 2005 12:48:26 AM)
Go Lori! I miss you, Pam West
Pam West, Bay St. Louis, MS (Sent Nov 28, 2005 10:38:49 PM)
Lori, I think your collages are beautiful. I'm sure this is a wonderful healing process. Although all the material things you lost can never be replaced at least you have your family and your art. You're creativity has come long way from the beautiful paintings I've seen at Beth's home to these wonderful collages. Take heart. Retta (Beth's Aunt)Rapid City, SD
Retta Jackson (Sent Nov 30, 2005 2:52:05 PM)
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