|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
People SearchFind an individual who either played a sport or was a member of a support group. Search by last name by clicking on the first letter of the person's last name.
Mr. Robert "KingRob" Harris
Home:
Work:
Home Phone: 337-267-3297 Updated Dec. 3, 2013 My “Christmas Cajun Style†album is now on itunes, Amazon.com and CD Baby. ♫ Christmas Cajun Style With Robert Harris – Robert Kingrob Harris. Listen @cdbabywww.cdbaby.com * * * * * * * * * Artist likes to make a scene By LAURA FAULK LAFAYETTE Mais, fa la la la la, cher! Producing Cajun Christmas music is only one of the myriad talents of local artist Robert “KingRob” Harris. His “Christmas Cajun Style” holiday CD pumps out formerly unknown hits, such as “Boudin Balls” and “Pichon the Pink Nosed Possum,” to the tunes of “Jingle Bells” and “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” respectively. “I can make up a whole song in 10 minutes,” Harris said. Ten minutes with Harris is like 10 minutes with hyper comedian Robin Williams. His jokes come out of nowhere and he never stops moving. His left hand scribbled drawings continuously as he illustrated whatever he was talking about. His current project is designing the scenery for nonprofit Ballet Acadiana’s production of “The Littlest Angel,” on Dec. 17 at Angelle Hall on the University of Louisiana at Lafayette campus. “I’m a semi-professional, non-professional set designer,” Harris said. “I don’t mind helping nonprofits. What goes around comes around.” “He makes the set come alive,” said Beverly Spell, artistic director for ballet Acadiana and owner/instructor of The Ballet Studio in Milton. “He did some of the sets for my show last year.” Harris and Spell were collaborating on scenery to depict heaven. “It’s going to be stark and childlike,” Harris explained. “In heaven, you can do whatever you want. No business meetings to go to.” Harris’ earthly work is divided between contemporary and folk paintings, furniture construction, T-shirt design, and even decorating restaurant windows with snazzy snowmen. “Every time he comes in he has a smile on his face,” said Rocky Guidry, general manager of the McDonald’s on Kaliste Saloom in Lafayette that has Harris’ work on its windows. “Everybody asks us who did it. They like it.” “I never know what I’m going to do,” said Harris, 48, in a gray, paint-stained “Mr. Monkey” sweatshirt of his own design. “I start with a blank canvas.” Harris’ blank canvases don’t stay blank for long, as they are covered with depictions of dogs, Huey Long, and people with divided faces, just to name a few. “There are two sides to everything,” he explained. “All paintings are stories.” One quirky story about Harris himself is that he likes the things in his paintings to be divisible by seven. There might be seven moons or 14 stars, just because that’s the way he wants it. “Seven is a lucky number for me,” he said. Harris, a native of Jeanerette, has been pretty lucky in finding a way to express himself through his work. Outside of becoming a career college student, he only knew that he wanted to do something creative. “I was going into advertising. There was no degree I wanted to actually use as a career,” he said. “I was asked to graduate. I had many, many hours.” Only a few of those hours were art classes, but Harris has been honing his skills since he used to draw Donald Duck on his school papers as a child. “I have literally thousands of drawings,” he said. “I need to find one person who’s smart enough to market all my stuff. I’ve learned that you can’t do everything.” Harris’ work is in the Peligro gallery in New Orleans, but he said he is looking to open his own gallery in Lafayette. He calls his work “Cajun contemporary folk art.” “You gotta have your own niche,” explained Harris, whose past work includes tearing down houses and working for an alarm company. “I don’t want to be this, I don’t want to be that. I like color. I like bright things. I paint whenever I get the time or the urge.” One special niche Harris creates is spirit boxes, a place for a person’s spirit to rest. A spirit box might be a coffee cup or a vase, just a simple pace for a spirit to rest. These “spirit boxes” and “spirit birds” appear in many of his paintings. “Everyone has a spirit bird,” he said. Harris also paints his deceased grandfather in various scenarios in heaven. So far, Harris’ grandfather has visited with Elvis and had his portrait done by “some dead guy named Picasso.” Harris said he gets his inspiration from different things, like the brown grass of winter, a found arrowhead, or the certain color of a rock. “It just happens,” he said. “Every day above ground is a good day.” Published Dec. 11, 2006
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
