medium: digital painting, procreate & photoshop, with 35mm film photography

• started 2023, completed 2024

• 2025 installed as an art box, general mouton & university, lafayette, la

there's a legend of a light that moves across louisiana swampwater at night, and no one can quite explain it, although many have tried.

the old folks call it the feufollet, will-o'-the-wisp, a wandering flame, a spirit that doesn't rest.

I felt called to illustrate this foolish little fire.

the piece is built digitally, from making stamps of my own photographs, mostly 35mm film photos of cypress tree silhouettes, and a lot of slow digital painting in procreate, a little at a time, over almost two years. every so often a new creature would join the landscape.

a lot of my inspiration for this piece already came from dear chris stafford, a friend, neighbor, musician who shaped so much of our cajun music scene. when we lost him far too soon in 2025, i painted him into the center of the piece. chris, as always, enchanting people to the dance floor, i pictured him as the maestro on the bank of the swamp. conducting the fires with his melodies, freeing the once trapped souls, calling them up to dance and glow.

thanks for always giving us that space to shine.

feufollet, installed on general mouton & university, lafayette's traffic box art program, october 2025

installed through @acadianacenterforthearts art box program in october 2025 at general mouton & university. a small piece of our swamp and story, now living out in the open for lafayette to pass by ✧