Imagining and rendering the characters of the Bayou State in their chunky elegance is where I've found myself for the last several decades. The faces, figures and postures of Creole people, their material poverty and soulful splendor, touches me. I am drawn to document and re-imagine the sweaty days of the non-privileged people of Louisiana in various media. It is a meditational journey in an aluminum jon boat. It is a spiritual duty.While my image-making has always begun with a flat sketch and / or a photo, in recent years mysketching has extended to cut-paper, stop-action animation and to video captures. Edward Gorey, Robert Crumb and Jean Dubuffet are my guiding diviners. If my agglomeration of weathered, hirsute and pockety people adds up to a smudged, flickering profile of the Bayou State, so be it.

Multi-disciplinary artist Robert E Trudeau is an award-winning video maker ("Alonzo Maxile, Jr," animation, Critic's Choice awarded by Bruce Campbell, Portland, OR, Impromptu, Shreveport) who worked as resident videographer for Artspace exhibits in 2011 and 2012. He is also an award-winning sketcher ("Elliott," Critic's Choice by Lauren Buscemi, san Diego, Bona Fide II, Shreveport). He is recipient of 2 Shreveport Common Temporary Art grants, which resulted in 2012's "Twenty One 6X6 Sketches on Texas Ave" and 2013's "Three Women," which can be seen on the side of a nondescript building at at 719 Crockett St. He won the City of Shreveport Multi-Disciplinary Artist Fellowship in 2008. Trudeau is a veteran secondary teacher (Caddo Magnet HS), city blogger (Shreveport.blogspot.com) and musician (Tchai, Shreveport Second Line Brass Band). Art critic Brett Campbell, Portland, Oregon, wrote of "Alonzo," "Trudeau's use of intentionally primitive techniques, sepia tone and spare line drawings combine to poignantly evoke the streetscape and to make the characters almost archetypal - appropriate for the almost parable-like nature of the simple tale. While I'd like to see a little more substance than this snapshot, the originality of his vision really stands out." Please see his videos at youtube.com/trudeau11. Please view more sketches at http://trudeauart.blogspot.com/
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