Sugar:: Wayne Amedee
Chrysalis XIX, 2017. Digital imagery, paper collage, foil, and acrylic on paper, 43 x 60 ½ inches.
The Chrysalis Series is a body of collage work on paper that emerged from foil candy wrappers left behind by my late wife Barbara. Unknown to me, during our 43 years together, she had been collecting these wrappers, carefully forming them together over time into large balls. As I unwrapped these balls, unfurling their delicate and brittle wings, I thought of a butterfly emerging from a chrysalis amid the stimulating array of color and brassy shine in the turnings of the foil around the sphere. Barbara’s cycle here had ended, while the effects of her hands and life continued with new life and meaning. I knew I had to use this to create something lasting and visually interesting. With acrylic paint, foil wrappers, pictures of Barbara’s hands, and reproductions of some of her many handwritten notes, this autobiographical series heightens the connection between touch, memory, taste, love, and time.

With a career spanning four decades, Wayne Amedee has seen his artwork succeed both locally and nationally. Over the years, in addition to New Orleans, he has shown in Atlanta, Houston, Los Angeles, Chicago and New York. He has also earned numerous awards, including a Rockefeller Grant, New Orleans Museum of Art Award, and Loyola University’s Jesuit Award for “People for Others”. He is represented in NOMA’s permanent collection, has helped establish Loyola University’s permanent sculpture garden and is continuing his efforts through the Frere Joseph Cornet Archive to establish a chair in African Art History at Loyola. Amedee recently completed several a large-scale public sculptures in the New Orleans area. He is a co-founder of the Contemporary Arts Center, actively involved with NOMA and Loyola University of New Orleans and is a trustee of Longue Vue House and Gardens, a trustee of Antenna, an artists collective, he is an advisor to 826 New Orleans, a writing program for New Orleans youth embracing writing and creativity