By Doug MacCash via NOLA.com

Douglas Bourgeois, who is among Louisiana’s finest artists by anyone’s standards, draws much of the inspiration for his magic realist paintings, from pop music sources. So it’s no surprise that his mini-retrospective at the Contemporary Arts Center during Prospect.3, New Orleans’ international art festival, grabbed the attention of Crescent City music authority Alex Rawls.

In his essay “Douglas Bourgeois Illuminated Pop” on his My Spilt Milk website, Rawls discusses musical inspiration with the master painter of St. Amant.

As Rawls writes:

“It’s tempting to see symbolic meaning in the figures who turn up in his paintings, whether they’re The Dixie Cups, Elvis, Jody Watley or Salt-N-Pepa, but Bourgeois doesn’t think that’s quite right. ‘They’re human, but they have gifts that let them communicate on a bigger scale.'”

The use of the word “illuminates” in the title almost certainly refers to the resemblance between Bourgeois’ paintings devoted to musical icons and the illustrated religious manuscripts of medieval monks.

Bourgeois revealed to Rawls a sketch of his metaphysical views.

“His spirituality is as idiosyncratic as his work,” Rawls wrote “‘I’m still a spiritual searcher,’ he says. ‘I tell people, Keep the good part. I’m more of a zen Buddhist Zoroastrian nature-loving—I still can’t figure it all out.'”

Read my November 24 “Wow” review “Louisiana master Douglas Bourgeois shines at Prospect.3.”

For everything you need to know about Prospect.3: Notes for Now, read on …

Prospect.3

What: “Prospect.3: Notes for Now” is an art festival featuring 58 individual exhibits of works by artists from around the country and world, displayed in 18 museums and other sites in New Orleans. The artists were selected by Franklin Sirmans, the curator of contemporary art at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). Prospect.3 also includes several other popup exhibits that were not selected by Sirmans. These scattered exhibits are called P.3+ or satellite exhibits.

When: The exhibits are on view Wednesdays through Sundays, 11 a.m.-4 p.m., through Jan. 25, 2015. The exhibit will be closed Nov. 27-28, Dec. 24-25 and Jan. 1, 2015. University venues will have longer holiday hiatuses.

Admission: Admission to individual venues applies. Adult admission to the Contemporary Arts Center, the Ogden Museum of Southern Art and the New Orleans Museum of Art is $10. Louisiana residents receive free admission to NOMA on Wednesdays, the Ogden on Thursdays and the CAC on Sundays. Visit the Prospect.3 website.

Where: Prospect.3 official exhibits are located at the following sites, with satellite shows in nearby communities. Read on …

Ashé Cultural Arts Center, 1712 Oretha Castle Haley Blvd. With works by Kerry James Marshall (USA).

AIA New Orleans Center for Design, 1000 St. Charles Ave. With works by Mary Ellen Carroll (USA).

City Park, 1 Palm Drive. With outdoor sculpture by Will Ryman (USA).

Contemporary Arts Center, 900 Camp St. With works by Manal AlDowayan (Saudi Arabia), Firelei Báez, (Dominican Republic), Zarina Bhimji (Uganda), Douglas Bourgeois (Louisiana), Mohamed Bourouissa (Algeria), Thomas Joshua Cooper (USA), Charles Gaines (USA), Theaster Gates (USA), Pieter Hugo (South Africa), Yun-Fei Ji (China), Remy Jungerman (Suriname), Glenn Kaino (USA), Lucia Koch (Brazil), Sophie T. Lvoff (New Orleans), Pushpamala N. (India) with Clare Arni (Great Britain) and Joe Ray (USA), Analia Saban (Argentina), Lucien Smith (USA), Agus Suwage (Indonesia) and David Zink Yi (Peru).

Isaac Delgado Fine Arts Gallery, Delgado Community College, 615 City Park Ave. With works by Piero Golia (Italy) and Entang Wiharso (Indonesia).

Dillard University Art Gallery, Cook Fine Arts and Communication Center, 2601 Gentilly Blvd. With works by Terry Adkins (USA) and William Cordova (Peru).

The Exchange Gallery, Arts Council of New Orleans, 935 Gravier St. With works by Liu Ding (China), Lisa Sigal (USA) and Tavares Strachan (Bahamas).

Joan Mitchell Center Studios, 1000 N. Rampart St. With works by McArthur Binion (USA), “Los Jaichackers” — Julio Cesar Morales and Eamon Ore- Girón (Mexico and USA), Akosua Adoma Owusu (USA), and Hayal Pozanti (Turkey).

Longue Vue House and Gardens, 7 Bamboo Road. With works by Shigeru Ban (Japan), Camille Henrot (France) and Antonio Vega Macotela (Mexico).

May Gallery and Residency, 2839 N. Robertson St. With works by Tameka Norris (New Orleans) and Garrett Bradley (New Orleans).

The George and Leah McKenna Museum of African American Art, 2003 Carondelet St. With works by Carrie Mae Weems (USA).

Newcomb Art Gallery, Woldenberg Art Center, Tulane University. With works by Monir Farmanfarmaian (Iran), Andrea Fraser (USA), Hew Locke (United Kingdom) and Ebony G. Patterson (Jamaica).

Note: Newcomb Gallery is on the Willow Street side of the Tulane University campus. Limited parking is available at the gallery. Two-hour parking is possible on nearby Audubon Boulevard.

The New Orleans African American Museum of Art, Culture and History, 1418 Gov. Nicholls St. With works by Zarouhie Abdalian (New Orleans).

New Orleans Museum of Art, 1 Collins Diboll Circle, City Park. With works by Tarsila do Amaral (Brazil), Frederick J. Brown (USA), Huguette Caland (Lebanon), Ed Clark (New Orleans), Andrea Fraser (USA), Paul Gauguin (France), Jeffrey Gibson (USA) and Alma Thomas (USA).

Ogden Museum of Southern Art, 925 Camp St. With works by Jean-Michel Basquiat (USA), Keith Calhoun (New Orleans), Chandra McCormick (New Orleans) and Herbert Singleton (New Orleans).

Tremé Market Branch Theater, 800 N. Claiborne Ave. With works by Gary Simmons (USA).

UNO St. Claude Gallery, 2429 St. Claude Ave. With works by The Propeller Group, featuring Phunam (Vietnam), Matt Lucero (USA), Tuan Andrew Nguyen (Vietnam) and Christopher Myers (USA).

Xavier University, 1 Drexel Drive. With works by Lonnie Holley (USA).

Attention P.3+ artists and art galleries: Share details, photos and videos of your exhibits at NOLA.com/arts. In addition to the 58 official Prospect.3 exhibits, the city will soon blossom with innumerable popup exhibits and events that fall into a category called P.3+. The satellite exhibitions, as they are also known, will be too numerous to cover in detail, but we’d like to list as many as possible.

If you’re having an event related to Prospect.3 and you want to invite our readers, please do so. Just register and create profile on NOLA.com and post details of your opening, a link to your gallery, photos and your opinion of the big art fest in the comment stream beneath the story. Here are some guidelines for posting comments.

Don’t be left out.