Traditional Art Portfolio Website in Black Blue Ivory Dark Experimental Style

Juliette Hare O’Connor

Mixed Media Salvage Art of Historic New Orleans & more

New Orleans history and the people who made it is a wildly unique story. From childhood I was always drawn to things a little out there: weird, scary and creepy. Crumbling tombs & abandoned places would stop me in my tracks; Halloween, Voodoo, dragons, & magical things all fascinate me.

For decades, I have been intrigued by the Women of Storyville after discovering the tomb of a Storyville brothel Madam and learning about her life. Researching her story and the lives of other such women led me to give presentations about Storyville and its women.

Along with the research of these women I discovered the early 1900 mugshot images of many unfortunate souls forever frozen in time.

I was hooked!

It’s a process

Basically self-taught, I do come from a family of female artists, my mother and an aunt were both very gifted. Prior to 2005 I created watercolors and small 3-D papier mache sculptures of the New Orleans tombs. After I retired in 2004 I was able to dedicate more time to my creative side. In August, 2005, the levee breaches after Hurricane Katrina did affect my progress for a few years, as it did for all of the New Orleans and Gulf Coast area.

Because of my interest in historic New Orleans - I focus on the old and crumbling cemetery tombs, the women of Storyville and others arrested during the Storyville era (1898-1917). In my work, I use salvaged items, vintage jewelry, rusted hardware, skulls and bones, broken dolls vintage photographs, and my own. I search antique stores, flea markets and estate sales for old New Orleans ephemera. I create assemblages and shrines of my finds.

During the 2020-2021 pandemic shutdown I was able to expand my works to include papier mache dragons, paper clay & transfers on mannequins and furniture, magic wands, large Mardi Gras float type flowers, and corpsing skeletons.

Places you may have seen me

New Orleans Arts Market

Jazz & Heritage Festival

Art In The Bend

Bayou Boogaloo

New Orleans PoBoy Festival

Nouvelle Lune Gallery

Green Eyed Gator Gallery

Online DIY Magazine

Gallery 421

Tales of the Cocktail

Jackson Brewery

Riverwalk FruFru Shop

Dirty Linen Night

WYES Art Auction

More of where you may have seen me

Contributor and volunteer for the WYES-TV Art Collection 12's annual art auction.

In February, 2007, I was invited to be a guest artist and speaker at the Kirkland Gallery of Millikin University in Decatur, IL. 28 pieces of my artwork were exhibited in the gallery for six weeks and visited by hundreds of viewers. I spoke to Professor Jim Schietinger’s art students and various staff members about my work. At the audience’s request, a portion of my presentation covered the recent devastation by Hurricane Katrina and Corp of Engineers’ levee failures in the New Orleans area. I ended my presentation with my favorite commercial about New Orleans:

Do They Play Jazz in Heaven - to watch

Click here

I was a featured artist in the 2008 July-September issue of the online DIY City Magazine

In October, 2008, the Save Our Cemeteries organization chose two of my cemetery assemblages and one of my distressed map of 1915 Storyville to be included in their annual Soiree Auction Fundraiser.

In March, 2008 I was a guest presenter to a standing-room-only crowd at the University of Southeastern Louisiana/Hammond during its Women in History Month. My “Those Naughty Women of Storyville” continued to be viewed online for several years.

In March, 2009, at the Hotel Monteleone, I was invited to speak about the “Women of Storyville” to the 150-member SECC Physician Group and their spouses.

In May, 2009. a piece of my Storyville work was presented to actress, Sandra Bullock, as a gift from my alma mater, Warren Easton Charter High School in New Orleans, LA.

The Storyville Women

Bellocq’s Women of Storyville

The “District”, referred to as Storyville was the “legal” Red Light section of New Orleans between 1898 and 1917. All madams, prostitutes and each establishment doing business were restricted to this area. Each prostitute was required to have a license and carry her registration card at all times. E.J. Bellocq, a commercial photographer during that time, would photograph these women during his personal time. While thousands of Bellocq’s photos were believed to have existed, very few survived.

Probably the most recognized E.J. Bellocq photo. This piece was a gift to the actress, Sandra Bullock, who had a restaurant in Texas that uses the striped stocking legs as the logo.

Storyville Women continued

The Bellocq photo used here was the inspiration for Louis Malle’s 1978 film, “Pretty Baby”, staring Brooke Shields. You have to notice the strong resemblance to the young Brooke Shields. Her name, we believe, was Addie Colleen McCarthy. She was born in 1898 to parents from New Orleans and was allegedly abandoned by her mother, a beautiful Creole prostitute whose name no one seems to know. She was probably age 12 or 13 at the time of this photo. A fascinating fact is that Bellocq’s aunt, Pauline (his mother’s sister), married a Leon McCarthy who lived nearby and they allegedly had no children. Addie Colleen was adopted by a widowed woman named Ellen McCarthy who lived on N. Liberty St., right in middle of Storyville. Of all of Bellocq’s photographs this one portrays a sense of inappropriateness on the part of Bellocq and reluctance on the part of Addie Colleen.

While many of Storyville women posed naked for Bellocq, others were captured in everyday life.

More examples of the Storyville women

MugShots

As my curiosity grew about the Women of Storyville, I discovered the mugshot collection of the New Orleans Police Dept. from the early 1900s. As an activitist for women’s rights, I was drawn to the many mug shots of women arrested for questionable reasons such as “sneak thief” and “suspicious person”, or my favorite, “street walking.” Equally compelling were the mugshots of the men.

More MugShots

Salvage Dumpster Dives

During a “dumpster dive” at a local mall, my friend and I discovered several linen-covered male and female mannequins - many with stands. We hauled these out along with other fixtures, lights, and supplies. Shown here is my “Storyville steampunk” woman who went to live in the dressing room of a Nashville, TN customer.

Halloween

Oh, what can’t be said about Halloween and everything that goes with it?

Hands down, my favorite time of year! All the creepy, weird, and scary things that can be created. Skulls, skeletons, potions, spells, magic wands, spell vessels, - Everything I love!

Shrines

Shrine of Verdie Allen Tusa

A Story of True Friendship and Revenge

Verdie Allen Tusa has married a violent and abusive man. Her best friend, Addie Songy Melancon, lived next door and witnessed this. Verdie’s husband, Henry Lee, started beating her nightly after spending hours gambling in a local bar where he complained he was going to “pick up and leave.” The two women hatched a plan to “get rid of him and leave no trace.” Henry Lee arrived at home for the last time playing his harmonica - Verdie and Addie were waiting for him on the back porch. Naked and sitting in the dark, the two women were on him with a large machete. They were swift and Henry never made a sound. By the light of a crescent moon, the two naked women buried the pieces of Henry Lee in their lush back gardens. Verdie took his pocket watch, fountain pen, harmonica, and the dice he threw. A button from the New Orleans Railroad jacket cuff joined the belongings. The women hid this box of possessions in the attic rafters of Verdie’s home, well hidden under old books and newspapers. The police were never called as no one missed Henry Lee, his employer sent his last check to Verdie. The two women remained neighbors and best friends until Verdie’s death sixty-one years later. Addie retrieved the cigar box from Verdie’s attic and kept it until her own death six years later. Her grandchildren threw it on a garage sale table several years later in Uptown New Orleans.

You may recognize some of Henry’s belongings if you look close enough.