Merci mes amies that read Where Y’at. One gold star for reading Where Y’at, an awesome publication, and a second gold star for voting us Best Art Gallery!

Best Art Gallery:

1. Michalopoulos Gallery (617 Bienville St., 558-0273)

James Michalopoulos once stated that New Orleans provides a “hospitable culture for creativity”. Known for his oil paintings and Jazz Fest posters, his artworks serves as a reminder for all the reasons we call this beloved city home.

Southern Living writer James T. Black interviews Michalopoulos for the May 2010 issue of Southern Living giving readers a sneak peek into the enigmatic life of a New Orleans artist…

Artist and rum distillery owner James Michalopoulos shares some of his favorite New Orleans stories.

On meeting musician Dr. John

“I’ve done five posters for the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival featuring people like Mahalia Jackson, Louis Armstrong, Allen Toussaint, and Dr. John. I’ve been a fan of Mac Rebennack [Dr. John] for years. I’d met him a couple of times at events around New Orleans but didn’t know him well. When I got the commission to paint him for the poster, I went to New York where Mac lives now and spent some time with him. He’s a great fellow, really friendly, and very dedicated to New Orleans. He’s done a lot to help the city and its musicians rebuild after Hurricane Katrina.”

On starting the Old New Orleans Rum distillery

“I’d visit friends in Switzerland, and the wife would make wines and other spirits using fruits from her garden. She inspired the distillery. At first I wanted to start a winery, but Louisiana isn’t the best place to grow grapes. We do grow a lot of sugar cane, though, so I thought, ‘why not rum?’ I got together with some friends and we started Old New Orleans Rum in 1995- It was trial and error at first, but we finally figured out what we were doing and now we run the largest rum distillery in the country. It’s located in a renovated cotton warehouse on Frenchman Street. It’s been a lot of fun and a lot of hard work.”

On the best way to handle a summer in New Orleans

“For a while I was an art director for the House of Blues productions and the ABC television network, working on broadcasts of their rock concerts. That job gave me the opportunity to live in France for several months, and I discovered the wonderful town of Macon in the Burgundy region. I bought a house in Macon, and now my wife, our three kids, and I live there about four months out of the year. I love New Orleans- but France is a lot cooler in the summer.”

Thanks to Gambit Weekly readers to voting James, Best Local Artist… “There’s something about James Michalopoulos’ warped, bending view of New Orleans that captures the city’s true essence — whether from the heat mirage or merely too much Taaka. His oils seem to melt off their canvases, and his coloring of three-tone shotguns pops ominously in the crescent moonlight.”  CLICK HERE to view entire article!

Keith Spera from The Times-Picayune was privileged enough to be a fly on the wall at a pow-wow between painters, musicians and politicians orchestrated at the epicenter of cultural convergence, The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival.  Check out Spera’s article below…

Had a meteor struck between Jazz Fest’s Fais Do Do and Congo Square stages on Saturday afternoon, the Louisiana arts community would be a whole lot poorer.

In a backstage trailer, Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu presided over a roundtable discussion populated by a cross-section of cultural entrepreneurs and artists: Restauranteurs John Besh and Donald Link. Zyde-soul singer Terrance Simien. James Michalopoulos, creator of this year’s Jazz Fest poster and several others. Art gallery owners Arthur Roger and Jonathan Ferrara. Nick Spitzer, host of syndicated radio show “American Routes.” Putumayo Records founder Dan Storper, whom Landrieu happened to spot strolling by.

For an audience of invited media, they each testified to the importance of the arts to Louisiana’s cultural economy. The setting was exhibit A – smack dab in the middle of Jazz Fest, with Cajun accordion bleeding into the trailer from Fais Do Do and the deep-funk brass of the Rebirth Brass Band rumbling from Congo Square.

They all reiterated that arts and culture are among the state’s chief attractions.

“I know of no one who stayed here, or who moved here, because of the infrastructure,” Spitzer said.

Michalopoulos testified that New Orleans provides a “hospitable culture for creativity.

Storper, who has traveled the globe to find music for his label, now lives in New Orleans part-time; Putumayo has an office here. He compared New Orleans to Paris, Havana and Rio, “places where people come together to make great music.”

With cuts to the state’s marketing budget a possibility, the session was intended in part to justify the cost of promoting music, food and culture – including Jazz Fest itself – and providing tax incentives for movie and record producers.

Cutting such budgets, Landrieu said, is the equivalent “of eating your seed corn…it is penny wise, but pound foolish.”

Simien said a preponderance of young zydeco bands indicates the music is as vital as ever. Sporting one of Jazz Fest’s new souvenir T-shirts, Landrieu asked Simien to reveal who won the first Grammy in the Cajun/zydeco category.

“I didn’t want to go there,” Simien said, before confessing that he was the winner.

Greater New Orleans Living Magazine & Television’s Beth Herstein speaks with James Michalopoulos about his life in his adopted city of New Orleans and how he has embraced it over the years…

Jazz Fest artist James Michalopoulos lives, breathes and paints New Orleans

James Michalopoulos is from the Northeast, but his interests and rhythm fit his adopted city perfectly. He is best known for his colorful paintings of New Orleans’ distinctive shotgun houses. To New Orleanians and Louisiana music fans in general, he is also loved for the vibrant Jazz Festival posters he designed in 1998, 2001, 2003 and 2006. This year, he’s designed the poster for the fifth time. In addition to painting, Michalopoulos is also a sculptor, a restaurateur and the owner of a rum distillery and a wine store. During our interview, I asked him if there was anything I was leaving out. “I just had a baby,” he replied. “She’s 1-year-old, and her name is Tallulah. . . . It’s something noteworthy in my life that maybe people don’t know, a little more info about my background.”

When did you come to New Orleans?

I came for a vacation in 1978, and I settled here in 1980.

What brought you to New Orleans?

The allure of New Orleans first is its eccentricity. It’s a very unusual and mysterious city, an aged city. You can feel the presence of many generations of people who’ve passed through here. It’s also a place of great sensual quality—lush and verdant. It’s a place of great birth and decay, like any swamplike environment.

Architecturally, it is probably the most interesting environment in America. It’s got a unique scale. It was largely configured before the presence of the automobile. Often, a place has interests or qualities because of the natural environment. New Orleans has a stunning built environment that offers a terrific feel and mood.

On the cultural level, anything goes in New Orleans. You can be who you are, and you will suffer less opprobrium than anywhere else. There’s a bohemian culture here stronger than anywhere else in the country. New Orleans, it seems to me, is the last surviving remnant of hippie bohemian culture.

How has New Orleans music influenced your art?

New Orleans is surrounded in sound. It is kind of like the air that we breathe here. This is a city that was born with the radio on and rocks itself to sleep at night and eats to live music at lunch. It’s a 24-hour-a-day experience here, probably next to bathing and eating, the most common human endeavor there is. For me, everything I do here is influenced by music. The whole place is rhythmic.

How did you get involved in doing your Jazz Festival artwork?

Jazz Fest approached me, and asked if I would be interested in doing the poster. That was many years ago when I did the first one, which was Dr. John. Subsequently, on occasion, they show up at my door . . . and the conversation begins once again.

What did it mean to you to do the first Jazz Fest poster after Hurricane Katrina [Fats Domino, in 2006]?

It meant a lot to me. It was an opportunity for me to engage myself in the celebration of life that is the city of New Orleans. Celebration is a fundamental aspect of New Orleans; it’s the pair of pants that the city wears. It gave me the chance to get back to that spirit of celebration and to move away from lament, regret and upset. I saw it as an opportunity to balance out some of the natural upset that people felt.

In one interview you were asked if your art had been influenced by the storm. You responded that your artwork isn’t directly influenced, but remains a celebration of the city. That’s how you contribute to the recovery, too, I think.

Exactly. I don’t think any storm in history has been so well documented visually as Katrina. I suppose I had lots of opportunities to work in some visual representation of the storm, but I really did not see it as an important aspect for me to do. There have been some marvelous photographic essays done, as well as paintings of the devastation. For me, the opportunity was clear, and it was to think fast and get on with the rocking.

What can you tell me about the 2009 poster?

Allen Toussaint, who is the artist, is a backbone of the New Orleans musical scene and history. I’ve known Allen for many years and seen him play many, many times. It was a real pleasure to have a chance to portray this fine gentleman.

He never seems to even break a sweat, he’s so cool.

Yeah, he’s very, very gentlemanly. When I’m looking at him performing, I can see him whiling away the hours in his banana leaf–covered patio and enjoying a nice mojito in the late afternoon, with his piano out in the backyard, writing his poetry to the breeze.

You spend your summers in France. How long have you been doing that and what kind of work do you do while you are there?

Ten years. I paint typically French landscapes and a lot of figurative work. I do a lot more sculpting when I am in France, also.

And you own a rum company?

Yes, it’s called Celebration Distillation (www.neworleansrum.com), and we manufacture Old New Orleans Rum. We’re the last rum distillery in Louisiana. We won a gold medal for our Amber rum in North America last year. The Crystal rum won a gold in the second-largest rum competition in the world. And the Cajun Spice rum is the only spiced rum ever cited by the Beverage Tasting Institute.

You own a restaurant also.

Yes, I do. It’s called Etoile, on the North Shore, and it’s got a bar and a wine shop there called Louisiana Star.

How do you juggle it all?

Oh, it’s a pain in the neck. Really, though, it’s all art for me. There are aspects of it that are all art. It gives me an opportunity to play in another arena.

It was 5:00 o’clock somewhere for the Good Morning New Orleans news crew this A.M.!  While enjoying Cajun Caiprihinia’s made by  Marvin Allen from the Carousel Bar located in the Historic Monteleone Hotel, Lorin Gaudin spoke with James Michalopoulos about exploring the arts both in the context of his latest Jazz & Heritage Festival poster as well as the art of creating the awarding-winning Old New Orleans Rums.

James pointed out that, though the Jazz Fest posters and perfecting the Old New Orleans Rums have proved challenging over the years, it is something he thoroughly enjoys. Check out the rest of the interview and tasty cocktails..
“[Old New Orleans Rum] is a really lovely product, your contribution locally to the flavor of the city is just phenomenal,” -Lorin Gaudin of ABC News Good Morning New Orleans

The April 2009 edition of New Orleans Homes & Lifestyles steps over the threshold of Michalopoulos’ eclectic Faubourg Marigny residence where they encounter a whimsical multi-level adaptation of what James and his family call a home for half of the year (the other half they inhabit a partially renovated chateau in France).

Where as Michalopoulos never paints a house in the conventional manner, nor will he be confined to the restraints of what the inside of a traditional home should appear to be.

For the New Orleans Homes & Lifestyles article, “Artist in Residence,” click here.

New Orleans, LA – March 2009 – James Michalopoulos is well known for his singing, swaying, slanted depictions of New Orleans architecture.  Much of his work also includes portraits of an unknown female, French nature and countryside, San Francisco homes and most recent, the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival (Jazz Fest) official poster– “Two Saints: Allen Toussaint and the French Quarter.”

James is no stranger to the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival.  He has created, in past years, posters portraying musical legends, Louis Armstrong, Fats Domino, Dr. John and Mahalia Jackson.  This year’s study features Allen Toussaint, who has been inducted into the Rock-n-Roll Hall of Fame and performed at this year’s Grammys.  He has been producing New Orleans sounds for decades and is a regular performer at Jazz Fest.

James Michalopoulos has also created CD and Album covers for musical artists, such as, Widespread Panic and John Mooney.  One of James biggest fans, Bonnie Raitt, will be performing this year at Jazz Fest.

For more information about the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, please visit:  www.nojazzfest.com

Michalopoulos Gallery is located in the New Orleans French Quarter at 617 Bienville Street, New Orleans, Louisiana 70130. Gallery phone number is (504)558-0505.  Website is www.michalopoulos.com

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James Michalopoulos’ talents transcend the canvas for a piece created to help rebuild the Girls Hope home in New Orleans that had been destroyed by Hurricane Katrina.  This sterling silver pendant titled “Hope-alopoulos” was featured in The Times-Picayune as well as the story behind the local chapter of Boys Hope Girls Hope’s trials and triumphs over the years.

The organization assist academically capable and motivated children-in-need to meet their full potential and become men and women for others by providing value-centered, family-like homes, opportunities and education through college.

“I’ve never done anything like this before, but I believe very much in education,” Michalopoulos said.

Director Cory Howat said he hopes for the Girls Hope house to be ready to turn into a home by July, the seventh anniversary of the 2002 Girls Hope home opening.

The Hope-alopoulos pendant is selling for $285 with all proceeds going toward rebuilding the Girls Hope home. Add this signed and numbered pendant to your New Orleans charms in between the water meter and fleur-de-lis and support a successful and rewarding program at the same time.

To order by phone, call 504.484.7744 or purchase online here.

Go on, give a little hope.

-A word from the Michalopoulos Gallery