Ever since my first visit seven years ago, there’s always been a special place in my heart for the grand n’ mysterious Southern state of Louisiana. And I count one of its many artists, writers, musicians and photographers among my favorites: Debbie Fleming Caffery.

Caffery’s luminous black and white gelatin silver prints never cease to amaze me: from photographs of a regal elderly Southern woman hanging onto the last shreds of her fiercely independent existence, to a pair of alligators tangled in a lover’s embrace.

So when I heard that San Francisco’s Robert Koch Gallery was going to be showing Caffery’s gripping yet poetic images taken in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, alongside photographer Larry Schwarm’s images in a two-person show called “Aftermath” I leapt at the chance to ask the Guggenheim Fellow and renowned photographer about this powerful body of work.

“I arrived in Lafayette, La. the day after Katrina hit Louisiana”, Caffery e-mailed about the origin of the series. “The people and landscape being my source of inspiration throughout my photographic life, I was compelled by a sense of duty as a photographer and of course by my instinct and guts to photograph my state.”

Assigned to the River Center Shelter in Baton Rouge alongside a writer from People magazine to interview the mostly African-American evacuees, Caffery “hesitated” in questioning people because of the sheer rawness of the disaster. “Once we started talking to people, they were very anxious to tell us about their experience. We found that everyone wanted to tell their stories. As they cried, I cried…This was my state and people and I ached for each person.”

Caffery remembers a particularly heartbreaking conversation she had with a child evacuee. “We were talking to a little boy and he told us when asked if he had brought a personal item with him, ‘I brought myself.’” The Saturday after the storm, Caffery joined some ministers and politicians from an African American Louisiana political caucus planning a rescue mission to the New Orleans airport where people were waiting for help. “I can say this was the evening my life changed,” she wrote.

Finding a nightmarish scene (“We could not believe we were in America”) Caffery pressed on to Alexandria and stopped at a shelter “greeted by two white people screaming at the buses (of evacuees) saying, “We don’t want the bus to stop here full of looters and diseased people.” Barred by the police from photographing them, Caffery went to another shelter where “the evacuees were met with gloved men that took all their personal belongings that were damp (fear of contamination) and brought into the shelter for detox showers and given new clothes. The lack of compassion, kindness and sensitivity to the evacuees was astounding…I made a pledge to myself that night that I would go into the neighborhoods of the people I had met and document them and as humanly possible. I would tell the story of what they went through and continuously remind our country that the tragedy in New Orleans was caused by the incompetence of the Federal Government, Corps of Engineers…and the improper evacuation by the city in helping the people that needed the most help.”

Caffery is presently editing and printing her work on both Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. She says that she would like to continue photographing as the city “stumbles into recovering.”

“Aftermath” is on display at Robert Koch Gallery, 49 Geary St., 5th Floor, San Francisco, through Jan. 26, 2008. A reception for the artists will be held at 5:30 p.m. Jan. 3, 2008

If ever there was an excuse to have an artful good time, this weekend’s Blue and Green Ball is that excuse.

Todd Blair
The Dec. 1 ball is a fundraising event for East Bay artist Todd Blair, a teacher at Oakland’s California College of the Arts who was injured in a loading accident during Amsterdam’s Robodock 2007 event.
He has been in the hospital in Amsterdam for months now. Luckily he has his longtime partner and friends by his side.
Anyway, this ain’t your mother’s disco party and the organizers aren’t follin’ around. (Yes, I know that was lame)
The event features DJ Vordo, who worked with Oakland’s The Crucible on a number of their well-received events and Joan Jeanrenaud.
The Extra Action Marching Band , not your mama’s marching band, will play too.
There will be belly dancing by Gibson Pearl, Kristen, and Kyrsten.
Plus other fun!
Admission is only $10 but I suggest bringing a bunch more money to spend on the planned art and services auction. At the last fund-raising event for Todd, I spent a gazillion dollars but walked away with a T-shirt I love and a bunch of other gifts for me.

Blue and Green Ball is at SOMArts Gallery, 934 Brannan St. in San Francisco. The event is from 8 p.m. to 2 a.m.

Jingletown is this interesting warehousey neighborhood in East Oakland between the Interstate 880 freeway and Alameda that is chock full of skilled and fun artists. Plus it has a cool name.

According to the business association, Jingletown got its name from Portugese cannery workers who would walk home from canning fruits from Fruitvale when they got paid and they’d “jingle” their pockets to express their pride in their earnings.

Regardless, if you go to this second-annual event, you’re sure to be impressed by the work of Simone Adair, the mosaics of Kim Larsen and the super mind-bending paintings of Darwin Price.

OH AND LOOKY HERE! I found the woman whose work I bought at the Pro Arts Art Walk. Jill Gibson is participating in the Jingletown Holiday Art Walk and this is the piece I bought from her a couple of years ago that hangs on my mantle!

The Heavens by Jill Gibson

You know that some of this work is affordable if I purchased some!

The Jingletown Holiday Art Walk is from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Dec. 1 and 2. There’s a map on the link to show you how to get there.

See you there!

Yes, we’re here. We’re at the holidays. Gah! 

Dress by Pauline Rose Designs

So I grew up in Pleasanton and I figured nothing cool ever came out of the Tri-Valley (except for me of course!) but then I hear about the Pacific Coast Mestieri, formerly known as the Pleasanton Craft Mafia.

I think mafia and I think coolness. I think of people gathering together and plotting and planning something. But this time, instead of whacking old Johnny for the bum dope he gave Rosene, it’s conspiring over crafts!

Anyway, the Mestieri sent us a press release about their upcoming crafts sale and I thought “ho-hum” because this was a Pleasanton thing. Was I wrong! I looked through the Mestieri’s Holidaze Craft Craze Web site and saw work that I actually really liked, like the dress above by Pauline Rose (you should see her handbags!) and this mysterious goddess figure by Barbe Saint John.

The Protector - Lost Goddess Doll, Lost Goddess Doll Series

The Mestieri’s Holidaze Craft Sale will feature 20 artists Dec. 15 and 16 at 1152 Crellin Road in Pleasanton. AND admission to the event is free! (That’s my favorite word when I am craft shopping!)

I have made it a relatively new tradition to go to the Celebration of Craftswomen Fair at San Francisco’s Fort Mason each year. There is so much beautiful art, made by women, at this show and sale.

However it is all a bit, well, expensive. But there are a few artists that do make work within my price range. One of those artists is Tikva Dehry, an L.A. -based artist who works with wood, paint, mirrors and prints to make religious and spiritual altars for the wall.

Last year, I fell in love with one of her works but I was there shopping for others. How could I reconcile buying this piece for myself? I skipped it.

This year at the crafts festival, I saw Tikva’s booth within the first half-hour of getting there. I was excited. It was one of the first booths with work I could afford and, to top that, I actually already liked the work. Within seconds, I picked out the piece I wanted to buy for myself.

It is the hand of Buddah holding a Lotus flower. I thought it would go nicely near a painting of Buddah I got when I was in Thailand in 2003, but I quickly found it looked great right in the entryway of my home.

But, again, I was here to shop for friends and family. Tivka’s work was also affordable for Christmas presents for a couple of my closest friends. One of my girlfriends is Christian and she loves altars so she and Tikva’s work are a perfect match!

 Pretty, no? It even says something neat on the back.

The Celebration of Craftswomen Fair continues this coming weekend, Dec. 1 and 2. Tickets are $8.50 and event proceeds benefit San Francisco’s Women’s Building.

The office is getting a makeover — walls are falling, computers are coming, desks are moving. Writer’s desks are notorious for collections of the detritus we call “research material,” from outdated phone books to promotional hats from the circus.

The editor e-mailed this warning: “Everyone, no exceptions, has to pick up, throw away, file, throw away, take home, throw away the papers, notes, press releases and reports underneath, around and atop our desks.”

Old museum exhibit catalogues and books such as “Eroticism in Art” have been swept away, stuffed into boxes and the trunk of the Mazda.

But here are five books (including two linked to recent exhibits) that must stay:

“The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art & Artists.” It seemed stiff at first, and it’s weighted toward the Brits, but I bought it when I was desperately trying to define conceptual art. Their take: “A term embracing various forms of art in which the idea for a work is considered more important than the finished product.”

“The Penguin Concise Dictionary of Art History.” Not as concise as the first, but the bios are a pleasure to read and always start with an intriguing quote, such as Georgia O’Keefe’s: “I desire to make the unknown known.”

“The Phaidon Photo Book.” It goes like this: one page, one photographer, one picture. Tiny, tiny type, but it’s swell getting lost in Mario Giacomelli’s Italy or Weegee’s in-your-face New York.

“The Sculpture of Louise Nevelson.” The show’s at the de Young Museum in San Francisco, and the catalog displays her never-ending experimentations with what the rest of us might call trash. Like all that stuff under the desk.

“Joseph Cornell: Navigating the Imagination.” Dream along with Cornell’s collections and constructions. The exhibit’s at the S.F. Museum of Modern Art. The book takes you on his imaginative voyage too.

I know it’s not crazy hipster street art that shows the urban hardships of today’s teens but, dang, if ever there was a reason to go to Union Square if you are a non-shopper like me, Shreve & Co. has the reason.

Ode to the Sea Fairy

Award-winning visual merchandising director for Shreve & Co. Jim Cardosa is a super nice guy who really enjoys his job putting these holiday window displays together. Last year, his theme was the 16th-century Italian comedy theater. That was the first time I even bothered to look into the jewlery store’s windows and it made me feel as if I was peeking into a magical and mysterious world. I felt like a kid again.
This year, the store’s theme is “A Fairy Merry Christmas.” There are 14 handcrafted individual fairies in various custom-built, hand-painted environments based on fairy poems.

Ode to the Queen Fairy
Cardosa doesn’t do all the work himself. Beginning in April, he assembled illustrator Bruce Henderson and sculptor/model-maker Kat Soto to start on this year’s presentation.

After working on several storyboards and concepts, the trio started crafting the environments in August.

Each window at Shreve & Co. has a theme, a poem and a fairy to illustrate both.

Ode to the Merchant Fairy

After the holidays, the models will be for sale on Kat Soto’s Web site. All proceeds will go to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

Shreve & Co. is at Post & Grant San Francisco in San Francisco.

Since you all know how much I love open studios, I thought I’d alert you to another open studio opportunity coming up. Reader Karen Pliskin says the space she works in, ActivSpace in Berkeley, is holding open studios for the first time ever Dec. 8 and 9!

Pliskin says, “ActivSpace is a three-story building on 7th Street in which artists and (very) small business people rent studios. The rents are reasonable for the bare-boned studios, and the artists, craftspeople, and business-owners who work there have created a sense of community, even though they are nestled in their individual spaces.”

There are jewelers and photographers, painters and artists of all sorts. And they will have work for sale!

Um, a chance to see a spot that’s never before been open to the public? I’m there!

The Sometime Gallery in East Oakland’s old Dutch Boy paint factory campus is, as the name suggests, open sometimes. The first major show of this interesting gallery was this past weekend, when proprietor Polly Harrold opened its doors to display the work of San Francisco Art Institute grad student Bunnie Reiss in the show, “Lucky Me.”

Don’t move too fast Photos by Polly Harrold

Reiss’ work is colorful and fun. Some pieces, like “Don’t Move Too Fast,” are simply go-cart wheels decorated with colorful string but the way they hang on the bare white wall make them visually interesting and attractive. There were 33 pieces in Reiss’ show — drawings, lithographs, sculpture and embroidery.

It’s that easy

Reiss, who also creates clothing and does paintings, seems to be focused on embroidery at the moment. Her pieces, often on jeans and other fabric, offer hopeful messages like this one. Another piece I particularly enjoyed, embroidery on jeans pockets, says “We can’t give up.”

These antique cards are colored with Bunnie’s needlepoint. Try to find the dog faces within the punk rock colors!

The Sometime Galley, a space defined by its huge windows and frequest rumblings from nearby trains, will host another show in December, “Green and Lovely: The Fauvist Portraiture of Jennifer Mondfrans.” Harrold also hosts wine tastings and other events at the gallery.

I’ve always been a fan of Mills College professor and acclaimed Oakland painter Hung Liu’s ethereal canvases. Using vintage photographs as her source material, Liu creates lush paintings that draw upon her cultural heritage.

There’s something heroic about her mostly female subjects, whether they’re anonymous young girls or women carrying the war-wounded.

Her newest series of paintings, according to Rena Bransten Gallery who’s mounted Liu’s latest exhibit, was inspired by Ling Zifeng’s 1949 film “Daughters of China” which chronicles a group of women soldiers and officers during the Sino-Japanese War. Even though she’s used celluloid rather than photography as inspiration, the hallmarks of Liu’s style are still apparent. These homages to women, history and the power of memory are bathed in the painter’s signature loose brushstrokes and drips.

The show runs Tuesdays-Saturdays through Nov. 24 at Rena Bransten Gallery, 77 Geary St., San Francisco. 415-982-3292. 

Visit Hung Liu’s Web site: www.kelliu.com