Macie Menard is a mixed media artist born and raised in Lafayette, LA. Their creative journey has taught them the importance of flowing in creativity as opposed to forcing creation. They find inspiration in nature, travel, movement, life experience, and (most importantly) their intuition. In their time as a graphic designer, they felt their creative flame was smothered by deadlines. Having to work within the confines of branding and marketing strategies dampened their creative inspiration. In an effort to rekindle their creative flame, they put the laptop aside and dove into the art of analog collage. After some time, they...

Jack Budd, American multi disciplinary artist, was born and raised in Lafayette, Louisiana and graduated from the University of Louisiana’s Visual Arts program with a concentration in Painting and Printmaking. Budd’s achievements include pieces and instillations in the University of Louisiana’s Marais Press Collection and Bottle Art Loft Apartments. Budd has also been published by the SouthWestern Review, a University of Louisiana contemporary periodical, on the cover and as a featured artist. Recent instillations include LOUDHOUSE X ARCHIVES and (un)Common with Basin Arts. With work examining identity, imagination, and language in the context of socio-political, scientific, and religious ideology, Budd...

Martha Garner is a certified Master Naturalist and collage artist who lives in Lafayette. Her collages represent her love for nature. She has recently created Art Spark project meant to bring about awareness of the fragility of our state’s ecology. It is on display at Cite des Arts. You can find her work on Instagram @marthacutsandglues, on Facebook as Martha Garner, Collage Artist, & on Culturalyst as tiny2022. Who makes up your art circle? Kathy Reed, Milton Arceneaux, Denise Gallagher, many online and Instagram friends, authors I know through my work with Festival of Words How do you expand your...

Carley Dupré is a ceramic artist and aspiring educator whose work serves as a testament to the multifaceted world of artistic exploration. Based in Lafayette, Louisiana, Carley is earning adegree in Visual Arts with a concentration in ceramics from the University of Louisiana atLafayette. She experiments with self-reflection across various media, including drawing,painting, printmaking, metalwork, and ceramics, creating artworks that carry personalsignificance. Each piece embodies a moment of personal growth, a reflection of herexperiences, or a view into her current emotional state. Carley has exhibited her work at theAcadiana Center for the Arts and has been recognized with numerous scholarships...

Kelly Nelson, a Louisiana native, is an artist who has a passion for all things related to the arts.She recently relocated back to Louisiana after living and working in Houston, Texas for the lasttwo decades. She grew up on the northside of Lafayette, Louisiana, where her parent’sencouraged creativity, dance, painting, and drawing. She believes being exposed to art from ayoung age has proved to be the conduit for her everlasting desire to create. Kelly earned herdegree from the University of Southwestern Louisiana. Kelly’s art depicts her perspective of culture mostly rooted in southern Louisiana and Texas. Assuch, her creations are...