Cajunology

Francis Pavy’s pictograms reflect his Louisiana heritage and love of roots music

By Doug MacCash, Art critic, NEW ORLEANS TIMES-PICAYUNE

''Born on Mardi Gras Day''

The current collection of super-scale hyper-hued works by renowned Lafayette artist Francis X. Pavy delivers the visual drama demanded by the wide-open sun-soaked interior of Arthur Roger Gallery Project in the Renaissance Arts Hotel.

A section of the gallery floor erupts with a forest of sculptural stalagmites: Pavy’s tall, painted wooden towers that look like crosses between Gotham skyscrapers and Egyptian obelisks. One wall is dominated by Pavy’s 20-foot-long, compositionally complicated canvas “Born on Mardi Gras Day,” which colorfully recalls the artist’s birth 51 years ago and various Carnival adventures and misadventures since. And another wall is gridded with 18 of Pavy’s signature symbolic skyscapes: Flocks of minuscule birds arranged in recognizable patterns, such as a diamond ring, a whiskey bottle, a snake and a crown.

''Migrating Flock: Guitar''

Those symbolic shapes are the backbone of Pavy’s art. For more than 20 years, the prolific artist has creatively combined and recombined his set of pictograms like a sort of personal hieroglyphics, to tell stories of Cajun life and myth and to express his devotion to roots music — Cajun and otherwise (Pavy’s love of musical subjects led to his selection as the 1997 Jazzfest poster artist).

In a recent telephone conversation, he explicitly decoded many of his self-referential symbols, using his flock paintings, where the pictograms are the most distinct, as a guide.

“I think of the images as icons, elements of a vocabulary,” he said. “We have a lot of birds flying over down here, ducks, geese, cedar wax wings, red winged blackbirds. I thought it would be neat if they (flocks of high-flying birds) could make shapes, so I started painting all of my icons (as odd migratory flocks).

“One shape is a palmetto. It’s such a common everyday vegetation. But it’s a thing that was very useful to the Indians, the ancient people who lived here. I see it as a staple of primitive society.

''Migrating Flock: Skull"

“There’s a telephone pole that’s also kind of a Catholic cross. I used to lay in the back seat of the car and see those poles go by.

“One shape is a bow tie. I think of it as kind of quaint and antiquated accessory for men. I think about my dad when I draw those things.

“Then there’s the old standby, the guitar. I play guitar and I like that elongated shape. My earliest memory is having a little cowboy guitar and wanting to be a yodeler.

“The martini glass symbolizes drinking. I like to drink — not to excess — but I enjoy it. It loosens up people’s tongues.

''Migrating Flock: Snake''

“There’s the crown. People are king of so many things down here: The pizza king, the used car king, the mobile home king, the zydeco king.

“The skull is like, I guess, my coming to terms with my own mortality. When you turn 50, you realize one day you might die.

“The snake, you know, doubles as the river. And the snake is an element of danger.”

In most of Pavy’s paintings and sculpture, he arranges his hieroglyphics to spell out immutable incidents. But his bird paintings are like pictorial Scrabble blocks.

“I made them in such a way that they could be arranged differently,” he said. “I particularly like the combination of the skull, snake and guitar. Those three symbolize an element of danger, mortality and sort of the Rolling Stones image of rock ‘n’ roll, the pursuit of music almost as a lost cause, a blessing and a curse.

“So many of my friends are musicians and they don’t have such a great lifestyle. It’s great to play on a stage, but they have dire circumstances in their lives. It’s a lonely road. It’s the pursuit of artistic expression at the expense of comfort.”

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FRANCIS PAVY
Recent Works
What: Colorful paintings and sculpture by the Lafayette artist.
Where: Arthur Roger Gallery Project, 730 Tchoupitoulas St., (504) 524-9393.
When: Tuesday-Saturday, 11 a.m. to 6, through April 30, with a reception Saturday from 6 to 8 p.m.