Michael Willmon, Cemetery Mardi Gras, 2003

Michael Willmon’s meticulously painted skeleton miniatures articulate lively thoughts about the life of New Orleans’ famous cemeteries. In Cemetery Mardi Gras of 2003, Willmon depicts the dead as having a Mardi Gras almost identical to that of the living. Like many New Orleanians, Willmon sees the dead as an integral part of the city; his skeletons rise from their graves and party through their cemeteries. The Times Picayune called his Carnival scenes romantic and traditional and referred to his fiery monochromatic palate as “Sodom and Gomorra orange.”

Though painted two years before the storm Cemetery Mardi Gras (amongst other festive and apocalyptic skeleton scenes) seems eerily post-Katrina. In reflecting on New Orleans’ life after death, the Cemetery Mardi Gras is a perfect portrayal of the resilience, hope and future of such a badly beaten city.

Willmon's post-Katrina pictures continue the interactions of his skeletons parallel to that of living New Orleanians. In The Great Katrina Flood (2006/07) we see them in and out of their cemetery - paddling through the soft blue water, being rescued off roofs by helicopters, and averting alligator attacks. One robed skeleton is even walking atop the flood waters. In Willmon's art, the differences between life and death, skin and bones, are scant.

References:

arthurrogergallery.com. 

Bookhardt, D. Eric. "Beauties and Beasts," Gambit Weekly, March 2005.
MacCash, Doug. "Baseball and Carnival: The Signs of a Great Civilization," Times- Picayune, 21 Janurary 2000.
MacCash, Doug. "Painter at Crest of Success," Times- Picayune. 16 August 2002.

Art:

Arthur Roger Gallery, New Orleans