{"id":2066621,"date":"2025-10-03T12:59:05","date_gmt":"2025-10-03T12:59:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2066621"},"modified":"2025-10-03T12:59:05","modified_gmt":"2025-10-03T12:59:05","slug":"a-look-behind-the-scenes-with-3-new-orleans-artists-entertainment-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/a-look-behind-the-scenes-with-3-new-orleans-artists-entertainment-life\/","title":{"rendered":"A look behind the scenes with 3 New Orleans artists | Entertainment\/Life"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Artists differ from the rest of us\u00a0due to an inherent creative ambition, a heightened sensitivity and openness to experience, and a distinct way of perceiving the world through a lens of possibility, curiosity, aesthetics and intuition. While everyone possesses creative potential, practicing artists cultivate and prioritize these traits, seeing patterns, colors and contours in ways others might miss, and they are driven by a compulsion or interest to create something new and expressive.<\/p>\n

In honor of Art for Art’s Sake, celebrating its 45th year on Saturday, Oct. 4, with gallery openings throughout the city, we look at\u00a0the lives of three visual artists who live and work in New Orleans, each at a different stage in their careers.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The living room Zana Brown shares with her family is comfortable and filled with natural light. At left is\u00a0Brown’s painting ‘Jelena.’ The wall on the right bears an installation of hollow, broken acrylic eggs, their interiors coated with gold leaf. The sofa is vintage; the chairs were sourced from a boutique hotel in the French Quarter and reupholstered. The chandelier is from Julie Neill Designs.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Zana Ran\u0111elovi\u0107 Brown<\/h3>\n

Figurative painter<\/em><\/h3>\n

A native of eastern Serbia, where she grew up during an extended series of wars, Brown\u2019s ethereal, feminine style of painting was informed by her background studies in landscape architecture, interior design, and fine art.<\/p>\n

She landed in New Orleans on a whim 18 years ago with school friends after completing a student exchange program in landscape architecture in South Carolina. \u201cThe first time I saw New Orleans, I felt like I had finally found the place where I belonged in this country.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Artist Zana Brown at work in her studio.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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She continued her studies on a student visa at Delgado Community College, earning degrees in interior design and fine art.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have always been a painter. It was always an outlet, but I got serious about it following a divorce when my son was very young,\u201d Brown said. \u201cI had no idea I could support myself solely as an artist until I was working part-time for (interior and lighting designer)\u00a0Julie Neill<\/a>, and a co-worker suggested I bring in some of my paintings to sell.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“They were so dark and angry. The women in them had no faces, but all three of them sold within a week. That\u2019s when I realized people respond to emotion in artwork. That is what they are seeking. People are looking for something they can relate to.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Brown\u2019s home is filled with items from a variety of sources. The dining table is from West Elm, the rug is from Uttermost. The painting on the rear wall, by Brown, is entitled \u201cApollo,\u201d his head is crowned in laurel leaves, finished with gold leaf. Brown made the chandelier over the table.<\/p>\n

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Brown began a spiritual exploration of feminine mystique, drawing on pagan traditions and imagery still prevalent in Serbia, the flora and fauna of her training as a landscape architect, the color theory of her training as an interior designer, and the sense of welcome and place she found in New Orleans.<\/p>\n

As her confidence grew and her style became defined, the audience for her work expanded to an international level, and her work is collected and displayed in museums and galleries worldwide.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Her signature style includes “Flowerhead” paintings, and she is represented by Zana Brown Studio (3908 Magazine St., 504-355-7527,\u00a0zanabrownstudio.com<\/a>), where she has an opening of new works from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 4.<\/p>\n

Brown works from a small shed-turned-studio behind her Old Metairie home. Follow her on Instagram, @zanabrownstudio.<\/p>\n

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Aubrey Morgan\u2019s studio apartment is awash in natural light and furnished with vintage finds.<\/p>\n

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Aubrey Morgan<\/h3>\n

Abstract painter<\/em><\/h3>\n

Aubrey Morgan created a life as a visual artist in her 40s after her decadeslong career as a professional ballerina was cut short by COVID-19.<\/p>\n

A Slidell native, Morgan moved to New York City at 14 to attend the School of American Ballet while also pursuing a traditional high school education at the Professional Children\u2019s School. At 16, she was dancing professionally with the New York City Ballet. She later performed in “The Phantom of the Opera” on Broadway.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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In 2020, while working as a dancer and instructor and living the life of an athlete, she contracted COVID-19, which evolved into long COVID, forcing her to retire from the stage. Her journey with abstract art began when friends visited her, bringing art supplies to help alleviate her boredom while she was largely confined to her home for two years.<\/p>\n

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Artist and ballerina Aubrey Morgan in her home studio.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\u201cAt first it was paint by numbers,\u201d Morgan said, \u201cbut that quickly grew boring, and I started moving beyond the lines.\u201d<\/p>\n

Long COVID eventually gave way to the chronic fatigue syndrome that Morgan lives with today as she teaches ballet at the Schramel Conservatory with the New Orleans Ballet Theatre and Main Street Dance in Hammond. \u201cI demonstrate, then rest for five minutes while my students repeat the demonstration,\u201d Morgan said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Morgan\u2019s abstract style is characterized by bold, exuberant colors and a dramatic sense of movement. The walls and surfaces of her studio apartment are covered with her paintings. Shown here, are from left, ‘Pirouetting’, ‘Soutenu,’ and ‘Waltz En Tournant.’<\/p>\n

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Morgan\u2019s abstract style, still in development, is characterized by bold, exuberant colors and a dramatic sense of movement. The walls and surfaces of the sun-splashed 750-square-foot studio apartment in the Cotton Mill that she shares with her cat, Mango, are covered with the paintings she seems to produce compulsively as she refines her work through classes at the New Orleans Academy of Fine Art. She sells her work privately. Follow her on Instagram, @canvasballet.<\/p>\n

\u201cArt represents a survival story for me,\u201d she said. \u201cI had to reinvent myself. My art is representative of my life in theater \u2014 lights, color, action. It brought me freedom, hope and faith that I could get past the darkness and build a new life.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Antonia Zennaro in her Lower Garden District Studio, after formerly working in her 7th Ward home. She prints her photographs on fabric, as can be seen in the window treatments behind her.<\/p>\n

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Antonia Zennaro<\/h3>\n

Documentary photographer\u00a0<\/em><\/h3>\n

Earlier this year, the prolific nature of her art drove Italian documentary photographer and social artist Antonia Zennaro from working in her home in the 7th Ward to a 500-square-foot studio space in the back of The Good Shop, an artists\u2019 co-op and gallery in the Lower Garden District.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Zennaro works on long-term projects in conflict zones and their aftermath by exploring memory, traditions and the human condition. Through her photography, she strives to bring the realities of different cultures into public spaces. Her work is exhibited in solo and group shows in Europe and the United States.<\/p>\n

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While in Colombia, Zennaro spent nine years learning to print or burn photographic images on fabric. She ships her printed works on fabric to native women in Guatemala and pays them a fair wage to embroider their own corresponding images.<\/p>\n

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She was born in Hamburg, Germany, and grew up in Bolzano, Italy. After living, studying, and working in Paris, Barcelona, Rome and Hamburg from 1999 to 2013, she moved to Bogot\u00e1, Colombia, and now calls New Orleans her home. After spending 15 years traveling the world, she said of her life in New Orleans, \u201cThe community embraced me, and I never left.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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While in Colombia, she spent nine years learning to print or burn photographic images on fabric.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Antonia Zennaro prints her photographs on fabric. This collection of images is part of her ‘Human\/Nature’ installation, which explores the juxtaposition of elements found in nature against images of people or man-made elements.<\/p>\n

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She built relationships with Indigenous women in Guatemala, with whom she continues to collaborate. She ships her printed works on fabric to them and pays them a fair wage to embroider their own corresponding images on the works before sending them back to Zennaro.<\/p>\n

Her installation “Banana Land Mobile” is composed of a network of textiles and photographs burned onto a series of embroidered hoops that tell the story of the foreign multinationals, notably the United Fruit Co., operating in Central America and the Caribbean during the mid-20th century, with little regard for the native populations.<\/p>\n

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This panel is part of a mobile from the ‘Human\/Nature’\u00a0 series of photography printed onto sheer fabric embellished with corn stalks and glass beads. It is part of a current group exhibition at Scale New Orleans, 612 Andrew Higgins Blvd.<\/p>\n

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\u201cMy work is storytelling, which is always tricky,\u201d Zennaro said. \u201cI\u2019m motivated to tell someone\u2019s story in a way that is accurate and retains the subject\u2019s voice while sharing my own perspective.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Zennaro’s mobile \u201cHuman\/Nature,\u201d hand-printed photography on sheer fabric embellished with corn stalks and glass beads, is part of a current group exhibition, \u201cNaturally Inclined,\u201d at Scale New Orleans, 612 Andrew Higgins Blvd.<\/p>\n

She is also hosting a Holistic Art Pop-up<\/a> from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 4, in her studio and at The Good Shop, 1114 Josephine St., during Arts for Art’s Sake.\u00a0Follow her at antoniazennaro.com<\/a> and on Instagram, @antonia.zennaro.<\/p>\n

ART FOR ART’S SAKE<\/h3>\n

What:<\/strong>\u00a0The annual opening of the fall arts season celebrates its 45th anniversary with gallery openings and a street party.\u00a0Many shops and galleries offer complimentary libations, snacks and live music.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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When:<\/strong>\u00a06 p.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 4<\/p>\n

Where:<\/strong>\u00a0Across the city, including the\u00a0Warehouse Arts District, where it was founded; 5 miles of Magazine Street; and throughout the French Quarter.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n