BRUSH of INSPIRATION: Artist uses parish’s unique movement to create festival artwork
Published 12:10 am Wednesday, September 21, 2016
- Dana Bardell Wallace stands next to the painting she created, which serves as the inspiration for the 2016 Andouille Festival poster.
LAPLACE — Dana Bardell Wallace is well known as a local tattoo artist, but she has received rave reviews in recent years for a series of paintings devoted to breast cancer awareness.
Wallace lost her mother five years ago to the disease and has become dedicated to the cause.
When friends suggested she should submit an entry for the upcoming Andouille Festival poster, she was leery about including the pink symbol, however.
Andouille Festival poster
“You know, when somebody asks you to do this for them, you don’t want to put your own thing into it,” Wallace said. “I was leery.”
After encouragement from friends, however, Wallace went with it and was thrilled when her design was chosen as the official poster of the 2016 Andouille Festival.
Wallace’s painting was unveiled Monday in a ceremony held at the St. John the Baptist Parish Community Center with a host of dignitaries and Wallace’s family members on hand.
Jerry Jones, Keith Hightower, Tracy Case, Aspen Murphy and Natalie Robottom celebrate Marathon Petroleum’s $30,000 contribution to the Andouille Festival.
“You can see why it was chosen,” Parish President Natalie Robottom said, adding a portion of the sales of the poster will be donated to a breast cancer awareness charity.
The 43rd annual festival, which celebrates the area’s famous sausage, will be held Oct. 14-16 on the grounds of the Community Center.
The event will include amusement rides, more than 25 food vendors, live entertainment, a gumbo cook-off, kid’s art tent, Sunday jazz brunch, gospel tent and an Andouille eating contest.
New this year is a General Store, which will sell reproductions of the official poster.
Monday’s announcement also included a $30,000 check presentation from Marathon Petroleum General Manager Tracy Case and Human Resources Manager Keith Hightower.
The company, which originally donated $2,000 to fund the kid’s art tent years ago, is now the festival’s major sponsor.
Wallace’s painting, which she said came to her in one marathon session, is full of color, depicting the rides, food and joy surrounding the Community Center each year. She said she has never missed a festival.
“It’s all movement,” she said.
“Everything is moving because we are moving. St. John Parish is moving. The Community Center is at the center of it because, when the festival moved to the Center, it just exploded.”
She did indeed include a small pink Breast Cancer Awareness ribbon next to the “2016” at the bottom of the painting.
“I had to,” she said. “That’s just me. That’s who I am.”
