artiste Nov/Dec | Page 12

Why

Acadiana?

I'm a cajun through and through. My mom is a Thibodeaux and my dad is a Babineaux. Acadiana is my home and being an artist I figured this was the best place to start featuring my work. Lafayette is a hub of creativity and inspiration. Being a part of the art community here only feels natural.

-Kali Marie Babineaux

All roads lead home, and if home is Acadiana, that’s where they’ll return you, dutiful and prompt, and just when you need it. The angle of sunlight returns to normal, the weight of the local air offers its familiar density, enrobing you, offering palpable heft to what the slant of the light reveals. Acadiana. There is no place like it. Leave, and you miss it. Return, and you feel realigned. I practice my art here because it’s where I want to be. I’m dug in. Lafayette is a fantastic town on the cusp of further greatness. I’ll ride that out, offering handfuls of my personal flower petals to the local air as I go. When I’m gone, that’s how you’ll know I was here: small shocks of color and a hint of fragrance in the air.

-Duncan Thistlethwaite

I have lived in Acadiana all of my life. My creative work has been incubated here and I feel emotionally and spiritually I have thrived here. I am curious about other parts of the world and enjoy travel, but to live in and give to my home-community has been satisfying in innumerable ways. I think Lafayette is coming to the fore and it is exciting to be here now, active and creating in the community. I welcome artists who would like to feel appreciated and supported to visit and put down roots. The soil is fertile.

-Clare L. Martin

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