Next Phase Mary Portrait

Quick sketch

Doesn't look like her yet, sketched her and transferred outline of sketch to big paper (2x 3 feet).

Bulding up layer after layer of color.

Cannot wait to get those eyes darkened!

Maaary Po-trit

Phase one of new project: Portrait of Mary Tuminaro. She plays accordion, sings real nice and plays drums, too. Mostly with The Bruisers. You should go see her sing every other Thursday. She might inspire you too.

Maaary

Definitely embroidering the front flowers....just trynig to decide whether to use oils or gouache with the silk thread.

Down in New Orleans is Finally Available!

Look to the right!

Yay!

If you should want to support the book, which we would greatly appeciate, please order it from your local bookstore. We really want to support local business!

Two NOLA bookstores we love:

Octavia Books -Billy will be reading from his book here on the first Thursday, September 6, time to be announced, but he will probably start at 6pm
Maple Street Bookshop

Billy will be on Thacker Mountain Radio on September 13 at 5:30pm, in Oxford, MS.

Down in New Orleans

My husband's book is up on the UC Press website!



Yay, Billy!!!!!

From the website:

"Billy Sothern's Down in New Orleans illustrates, in very human and heartbreaking ways, how the horrors that emerged during and following Hurricane Katrina existed long before the storm. These beautifully composed stories not only reveal the dignity-and amazing grit and grace-of the hurricane's survivors; they also illuminate larger truths about the urgent issues of our day. Sothern magnifies the urgency of creating a government that really serves the common good-and a society that protects its poor and vulnerable."--Katrina vanden Heuvel, Editor & Publisher, The Nation

"Billy Sothern is the only writer in the world who can simultaneously convince you that the forsaking of New Orleans is so much worse than you thought it was, and also that you should move there immediately. The smartest, most in-love-with-the-world book yet written about New Orleans and Hurricane Katrina."--Rachel Maddow, host of "Air America Radio"

"As much as Down in New Orleans is a damning account of everything that went wrong after Katrina struck, it's also a deeply soulful and eloquent tribute-part paean and part eulogy-to a place [Sothern] loves almost despite himself. It's essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the past, present and future of this indispensable city."--Dave Eggers

DESCRIPTION

"Post-Katrina New Orleans hasn't been an easy place to live, it hasn't been an easy place to be in love, it hasn't been an easy place to take care of yourself or see the bright side of things." So reflects Billy Sothern in this unforgettable insider's chronicle of the 2005 disaster and the year that followed. Sothern, a death penalty lawyer who with his wife, photographer Nikki Page, arrived in the city four years ahead of Katrina, delivers a haunting, personal, and quintessentially American story. Writing with an idealist's passion, a journalist's eye for detail, and a lawyer's attention to injustice, Sothern guides the reader on a journey through post-Katrina New Orleans.

CONTENTS

Contents
Acknowledgments
Prologue

I. Heading Straight for Us: The Days before and after Hurricane Katrina
II. This Could Be Anywhere: Katrina's Immediate Aftermath, Late Summer 2006
III. Personals: Departures and Homecomings
IV. Against the Ropes: New Orleans's Unlikely Recovery

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Billy Sothern is a staff attorney at the Capital Appeals Project and codirector of Reprieve (US), which is based in New Orleans. He is a graduate of New York University School of Law and has written for The Nation, the New York Times, and Salon, among other publications. Nikki Page is a photographer, painter, and art teacher living in New Orleans.