The year before KATRINA hit Jazz City - New Orleans - I was down there for a conference. That year, a hurricane called IVAN began making a bee line for the delta town causing an evacuation panic like I had never seen before until the following year. Within hours the town was boarded up, the streets were empty except for the homeless, but all the roads leading out of town were a parking lot of humanity trying to seek safety. I had no car, the airports were closed, rental counters were deserted. One of my friends from work and I bought the last tickets available on “The Train They Call The City Of New Orleans”. We made a midnight run to Chicago, out of harms way, which is a completely different story all together.. What happened to hurricane Ivan?…It missed New Orleans and devastated Pensacola.Jazz City, is also a store that was across the street from my hotel on Canal and Chartres. I have painted it a couple times because the salt, humid air has made the old archetecture quite interesting. Here is a Palette Knife and a Water Color rendition and a Google Map of the store.
