![]() Like his contemporaries (most notably Osborne), the colour scheme and perspective help imbue the houses with their own personalities and their own sense of story. The architecture itself seems joyous and celebratory, somehow participating in the Festival. Bocage’s poster brings the very landscape to life in a colourful spread of houses and people. The Festival also aims to raise money to support the culture and architecture of the area, as well as to help preserve its rich history. I feel if you are part of the culture, contributing any way you can is a right of passage.”īocage has exhibited in the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival and ASHE Cultural Centre, and he was selected to craft the poster for the 2016 Tremé Fall Festival (a weekend of festivities, music and food in the Tremé neighbourhood of New Orleans). “ The city of New Orleans… is constantly evolving while maintaining a foundation as being one of the world’s most unique cultures. Bocage credits the artist Jean-Michel Basquiat as a key inspiration, particularly his “freedom to express”, but Basquiat’s mix of local iconography with personal experience also seems to resonate in Bocage’s paintings, creating graphic mythology out of one’s own culture. Artworks by Robert Bocageīocage’s approach explains the rich iconography of New Orleans culture in his work – from locally branded kidney beans, Hubig’s New Orleans Style Pies, to resident musicians. Given that he credits the city as a work of art in itself, his philosophy is one of clarity and loyalty to the lived moment. Bocage’s artistic outlook, similar to that of other intuitive New Orleans artists, is one of immediacy over intellect, the warm soul of the city as opposed to the theoretical. “ Once I can see it in full, I bring that mental picture to life on the canvas”. Bocage even credits the act of ‘staring” as taking up 60% of his creative time, absorbing his environment before committing his vision to the canvas. I want to make sure my art is always up for interpretation to those who see it”. “ I draw inspiration from my life and how I see it. Yet Bocage has always been sensitive to the visual vibrancy of the world around him. It wasn’t until his friend, and fellow New Orleans artist Terrance Osborne offered him advice that Bocage began to identify as an artist. Bocage’s talent thus emerged out of necessity. I knew the only way to have it was to paint it myself”. Bocage explains, “It started as a single project when I wanted something for my wall. It was only when he was seeking out specific artwork for his house that he began painting. In a 2016 interview with the Tremé Fall Festival, Bocage notes how “ I’ve always been able to create with words and stories”. His early passion for creativity initially led him to a career in television and radio. “A kid visionary is so vital to our future… Sometimes you take the things around you and make them into anything you can imagine”. “ As a kid, I sometimes had only my imagination to play with”, Bocage recalls while commenting on his painting for Roc Nation. However, having had significant artistic success in the last decade and possessing an instinctive, vital sensibility for colour and daily iconography, it’s worth noting that Bocage began in entertainment before he became an artist. His love for colour marks Bocage’s work as distinctly local to the New Orleans art circle, with his vivid semi-hallucinatory use of colour. “When I realised I saw everything in colour”. ![]() When asked when he first realised he had a passion for art, Robert Bocage replied, Local painter, storyteller and iconographer Robert Bocage’s art presents viewers with a vision of New Orleans that is constantly evolving, ever inspiring, “The city of New Orleans is a work of art in itself”. ![]()
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