Mardi Gras with the Skeleton Krewe

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This year I spent Mardi Gras Photographing the Skeleton Krewe. The Krewe was created by Christopher Kirsch, a New Orleans native and fine artist in the truest sense of the word. 

Click here to check out a preview of a book i made from the photos I shot that day. And here to see more see images from 2013's Le Krewe D'Etat parade. 

I asked Christopher what inspired him to create his own crew. Here is his response. " 

 There is no one factor that inspired me to start my own Mardi Gras Marching Krewe but rather a series of events.

First off it's in my blood, my father and my father's father both marched in the oldest Mardi Gras marching club, the Jefferson City Buzzards. The history of that club goes all the way back to 1890. I knew I couldn't be a Buzzard but that's another story.....I knew I had to start something on my own. As a child I was always fascinated by a photo that they would publish every Mardi Gras in the times picayune of several skeletons walking down Magazine Street, it's an early photo before the streets were paved in New Orleans and as a child this picture fascinated me, always thinking to myself “that ain't Mardi Gras that Halloween” Year after year they would publish this photo in their Mardi Gras supplement pull-out. It wasn't until the 1990's when Mardi Gras was dieing did I learn that skeletons are a common image in Mardi Gras in New Orleans as well as Carnival celebrations around the world, from Rio to Haiti and even Italy. Around that time I became to soak up any Carnival and Mardi Gras history I could from a Gambit article about the Black Bone Gangs or New Orleans, to a James Gill book called Lords of Misrule and several other books on the subject.... after reading about how Comus started as a street level procession I was determined to build something of my own to help save Mardi Gras....now this didn't happen over night, it started slowly and has built slowly.I knew I wanted to be traditional, I knew it had to be Papier Mache just like the early heads of the giant walking heads of Comus and I knew I wouldn't want to wear a head over and over again, every year it would have to be a new head, and I new nothing could be store bought and ready to wear (okay our gloves are store bought but that's it) 
It started slowly, me by myself in 1999 and again in 2000 
Then in 2001 my then girlfriend (now my wife) decided to make a head (a devil, also a traditional carnival image) some friends saw us that year and joined us in 2002, slowly we grew but I new I always wanted to maintain control and quality of the krewe. By 2003 we settled on a logo and went forward, we grew from 6 members in 2003 to about 40 now, some aren't active due to little ones of having to relocate post-Katrina but I still consider most people that once marched with us members (there are only a few that I would never let march again – but I ask you don't print that) in 2012 we had 24 active members, in 2013 we only had 17 due to illness of some a bad back of another and others not being able to get the day off.

In 2000 I began costuming as a skeleton for the Le Krewe d”Etat parade, somewhere along the lines they noticed and by carnival 2005 we were asked to take part in their parade and pass out their Carnival Bulletin and their own Wooden Nickels, the only way to get these items is to obtain them from the Skeleton Krewe during the parade. We have proudly lead their procession since then, learning and growing along the way.We are made up of Artist, School Teachers, Liberians, Fire Fighters, Attorneys, professors and Office Workers and more. We range in age from the late 20s to the early 60s We spend about 6 plus weeks of heavy preparation to get ready for Carnival, from each member making their own head to spending time getting our trailer ready for Le Krewe d”Etat or making banners or ordering “throws”, we are broken up into committees to help organize everything. Some of us spend much more than 6 weeks on the Skeleton Krewe........

Our Krewe starts early on Mardi Gras morning, leaving a secret location before sunrise and heading down the traditional parade route down St Charles Ave. before heading into the French Quarter, each year we stop at St. Louis Cathedral and have a meal and meet and greet other Marching clubs, This year we toasted the Krewe of Bike-Us in years past we have met up with the Krewe of Grotesque and Outlandish Habiliments, the Krewe of the Golden Calf or the Krewe of Chartreuse and others. Part of our Carnival ritual has evolved into Battling the Christians (not very Christian Christians) I like how you have labeled them A Christian Hate Group. It has just sort of happened, this year was the first for the Blah Blah Blah banner but we are already planning on making more of those along with some nonsensical Christian banners....you'll have to wait until 2014 to see what we come up with.....after we tire of the Christians we move on to the R Bar on Royal Street to meet up and watch the Society of Saint Anne, we slowly disband and start heading home around 2 in the afternoon or so. I would just like to mention that there is nothing else I ever want to do for Mardi Gras ever again" 

To see more images check out set on flickr here. 

Thoughts of Flo McGarrell a Year After the Earthquake in Haiti

Flo McGarrell was on my mind a year ago today, and is again today, the anniversary of the earthquake in Haiti. Flo died in the collapse of the Peace of Mind Hotel in Jacmel. His sudden death stays with me. I feel powerless to ease the pain of Flo's parents, who miss him immeasurably. Flo's room in the McGarrell's Vermont home has been left as it was the last time Flo visited in December 2009. His work lives on, as his friends continue to offer assistance to the artists he was mentoring at FOSJA, a Jacmel art center. Sue Frame who was with Flo at the time of the earthquake, started Jakmel Ekspresyons to carry on Flo's work to help contemporary artists in Jacmel. A memorial exhibition at AVA in New Hampshire included many of Flo's inflatable sculptures as well as the work of many of Flo's friends. This link it to AVA's post on the show.In an interview, Flo said, "I am extremely lucky to have an amazingly supportive family who puts up with all my crazy schemes. They seem to understand, respect and trust my drive. I am so thankful I was born into them, and do not take this for granted. This is where all my freedom really comes from. I don’t have to really sell any work because, if worst comes to worst, I can always go home." Here is a link to read interview by Georgia Kotretsos.

Today I added 23 previously unreleased images to a set on flickr of images shot three weeks after the earthquake along with a set of Haiti 11 months after the earthquake.

Image descriptions: Top- Haitian beads and small bottle of Haitian spirits on the door of Flo's room, Flo's bedroom, as he left it ,Shrine in Flo's room

Bottom- Zaka ( Claudel Chery) , Flo's protoge, visiting the memorial in the McGarrel's backyard where Flo's ashes are buried,Window sill in Flo's room, Flo's book shelf

Homage to Flo McGarrell

Flo McGarrell wearing one of his fiber art creations

When I first heard of the earthquake in Haiti I thought of Flo McGarrell. I knew he was there. I called his mother Ann, and I conveyed my sense that Flo would be fine, leading the rescue efforts of others. I was wrong. Despite Flo's strength, the earthquake's suddenness made survival more an act of luck than will. He was killed instantly on January 12th when the Peace of Mind Hotel in Jacmel collapsed. His body still remains trapped under the hotel. A friend who was with him at the hotel and the remaining members of FOSAJ, the art center Flo ran, have been unable to dig him out. The State Department may send some heavy lifting equipment to Jacmel so the body can be recovered.

One natural disaster put me on the path to meet Flo and another has taken him away. Ann McGarrell, Flo’s mother, contacted me after seeing a series of photographs I did about post–Katrina New Orleans. We collaborated on a book using photos she selected from my series and a poem she wrote inspired by my photos. This collaboration also brought Flo and James, Ann's husband and Flo’s father, into my life. Both are fine artists of the highest caliber.

I was privileged to share a Thanksgiving with them. Flo prepared raw food concoctions that were scrumptious. That weekend I took pictures of Flo’s crocheted hats so he could enter them in a fiber-art competition. Ann, James and Flo acted as models on a cold Vermont autumn day. He talked to me about the art center in Haiti he was going to be running and invited me to visit and teach a workshop there, an offer I will always regret not having accepted sooner.

Flo was multi-talented and had a generous spirit, openly sharing ideas and help. His life and his work were interconnected. Working and living in Haiti was a synthesis of his many interests. He had started making "agrisculptures," using plants and recycled materials to make a statement about sustainability. In Haiti, he ran the art center on a shoestring, committed to bringing the local art community in Haiti together. His optimism and positive outlook were infectious.

In a recent interview Flo said, "I have a few guiding principles, which I think must propel me toward this artistic freedom you speak about: Don’t hide, don’t lie. Do that which scares me. Resist the urge to settle. Be as many things as possible in this lifetime.” From what I know of Flo that is exactly how he lived. Flo’s commitment to these principles and his life’s work are inspirational. The randomness of his death is difficult to grasp.


On Friday, Jan. 15th I went to a banquet hall on Wall Street to photograph a benefit for FAR, the Fund for Armenian Relief, a humanitarian organization formed to aid the victims of the earthquake that hit Spitak, Armenia 25 years ago. I arrived early and followed voices I heard in the distance near the Stock Exchange. There was a rally, tying many issues together. A mishmash protest of sorts by the Bail out People Movement . The crowded chanted that Wall Street should bail out Haiti, return the riches it has stolen. Councilman Charles Barron on Brooklyn, stated the $100 million Obama pledged to Haiti amounted to $50 per person and demanded more help be given to Haiti.

At the banquet a few of the speakers mentioned Haiti, but their focus was Armenia. The evening was a reminder of how long it takes an impoverished nation to recover. I write this waiting for a flight back to New Orleans, a city still hardly better and stronger than ever, as Bush had envisioned it. It is unfortunate there is no end in sight to war. Cleaning up the wrath of nature seems task enough for the world. The earth's moving plates know no boundaries, and when they shift, we are all equally in peril.

To Flo’s family and friends, I reiterate my deepest condolences. To everyone else, I want to share Flo’s life and work.

The McGarrells wearing Flo's fiber art creations

To see more of Flo’s work go to www.gowithflo.net

The Rutland Herald wrote the following
http://www.rutlandherald.com/article/20100115/THISJUSTIN/1150333

To read more of Flo’s own words read a recent interview in Art : 21 Blog
http://blog.art21.org/2009/08/28/inside-the-artists-studio-flo-mcgarrell/

To see James McGarrels site created by Flo click here http://www.redwingstanza.com/index.html

Protest on in NYC for more aid to Haiti

Protest in NYC for more aid to Haiti/ Councilman calling for more aid to Haiti

Xavier Pick draws Basra with pen and ink

I met Xavier Pick at Camp Allenby. He is an artist of the finest sort. He works from his heart in a very immediate fashion- pen and ink. Xavier was a guest of the British military. He came to Basra, much like I did, to check out the situation for himself and create a body of work about what he finds. He shared his work as he went on the base and in the streets, and will go on sharing the work as he turns his sketches into larger art pieces in the form of paintings and videos. At Division Headquarters he put on an exhibition of printed out blowups of pages from sketchbooks that include text and image. I took pictures of him as he interviewed British General Salmon as they did a walk through of the show. Xavier works in the tradition of the war sketch artist, an English tradition. He got to join in on and draw one mission that made national news. The Iraqi military repossessed ancient artifacts from smugglers in a sting operation conducted fully by the Iraqis. He was on site while the Iraqi military inspected the goods before they were packed up to be returned to the museum in Baghdad. Over the course of a month he documented a large swatch of life in Basra besides all things military.

Xavier’s work is full of his exuberance for life. His sketchbooks are real treasures full of his personal observations. During my interview with him, he commented on the difference between himself and photojournalists,
"The big story of destruction does sell. I'm looking for the opposite." When asked about the worst case scenario for Basra, he spoke instead about the best, saying, " The best case scenario: the Iranian and Iraqi border opens up and everyone accepts everyone. The Shias accept the Sunni, accept the Buddhists, accept the Christians, and we have one big party and we all sit down at the same table to eat."

images top to bottom left to right- Xavier's journal/ Phin Percy filming Xavier in his room/studio at Camp Allenby,open page in sketch book, General Salmon and Xavier walking through exhibition of Xavier's work/portrait of General Salmon/ Portrait of Xavier. To contact Xavier or see more of his work visit his website at

www.xavierpick.com