Mamou Teaches NOLA To Dance

by Seaux-N-Seau Soileau

Title

Mamou Teaches NOLA To Dance

Artist

Seaux-N-Seau Soileau

Medium

Painting - Acrylic On Canvas

Description

Two Mardi Gras traditions dance together in this folk art painting by Seaux N. Seau Soileau. Mamou Teaches NOLA To Dance. Mamou, Louisiana has a Cajun style Mardi Gras which involves men riding on horseback through the country to beg for chickens and other ingredients for their community gumbo. The Mardi Gras riders dance, often on the back of their house and entertain the farmers in hopes of getting a bigger donations for their gumbo. Mamou Mardi Gras riders normally wear cotton pants and long sleeve shirts which fabric straps which has been cut into fringe is sewn in layers on the pants and shirt. The riders wear cone shaped hats with skirts on the back and are also covered with the fringe cut fabric. Riders wear screan mask that are painted in bright colors and often feature stuffed noses and painted simple folk art style eyes and mouths. This country style Mardi Gras is very different from New Orleans' Creole style Mardi Gras.
New Orleans Mardi Gras involves fancy balls which has kings, queens, and other royalty that has been crowned for that year by the crew they represent. The royalty rides through the city in parades on elaborately decorated floats. The royalty throws out brightly colored necklaces, dablooms, trinkets, and other souvenirs that often depict the crews theme.
In this painting Mamou is teaching NOLA (abbreviated form of New Orleans, Louisiana) to dance on the back of an Appaloosa horse which was the most popular type horse in Acadiana when the Cajuns settled there. Normally men dance alone on their horse's back but in order to show the two traditions uniting for a night they traditions are depicted as a couple.
Featured in the following Fine Art America groups:
Created by Southern Artists 1-23-2022
Masks 02-20-2022
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Uploaded

January 13th, 2022

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