Inside New Orleans ARTIST WE LOVE: ISABELLE JACOPIN open and music comes into my studio. I have so many subjects to paint — the musicians on the street, the crowds and buildings. Talk a little about how you first came to New Orleans from your native France. I started my love story with New Orleans with good luck. I was living in France and wanted to travel to America, and one of my customers said one day: Where would you like to go? I said that I’d love to discover New Orleans, and they said they’d buy me a plane ticket if I gave them a painting. I came to New Orleans for a month, and as soon as I arrived I knew part of my life would be here. Now I spend eight months a year living in the French Quarter and four months in France. Do you stay connected with New Orleans when you’re in France? Yes. We actually have a New Orleans music festival in my village where we’ve brought great names from New Orleans to perform. We’ve had Big Chief Monk Boudreaux and Johnny Sansone. I also listen to WWOZ [New Orleans’ local jazz and blues station, at 90.7 FM] online when I’m at my studio in France. I have so many beads and New Orleans decorations there ... I miss New Orleans when I’m away, but if you came to my studio, you’d think you were in a French Quarter house! Why did you settle on living in the French Quarter? It’s so full of life. I’ve been living for four-and-a-half years in an upstairs apartment at the corner of St. Peter and Royal, where I have my studio. I keep the windows 14
New Orleans Official Visitors Guide Winter/Spring 2017: Page 14
