Tina Girouard’s work combines a mixture of New Orleans Mardi Gras themes with Voodoo images and Mexican Day of the Dead symbolism. Figures (hand sewn glass beads, sequins, acrylic and other media on canvas) is a colorful cornucopia of ideas. The piece includes dancing female figures, fetal babies, skulls, revelers, and a purple and blue saxophone. The work does not suggest a cohesive narrative but seems rather to be a blending of ideas and cultures - an idea widely accepted in New Orleans. The city was founded primarily on French and Spanish traditions but the area was settled by people of widely divergent cultures all of whom have all shared their traditions, some willingly, some by force, still others against their better judgment. The piece is extremely intricate: its undeniable New Orleans sensibility might best be compared to a kind of gumbo. Many different ingredients come together to make a delicious whole; a pictorial conflagration of cultural traditions, nicely spiced.
Victoria Micelli.