EVERYBODY'S IN LA: CAREY HOPE, ARTIST AND LEGAL ADVOCATE
Interview by Paul Oswell
Carey Hope is an artist and a paralegal working in the field of civil rights. Her gallery show, WHO THEY ARE, opens this weekend at The Front Gallery. We caught up with Carey to find out more.
Hi Carey, thanks for talking to us, could you tell our readers a little about your upcoming show? What are the main themes and what can they expect?
Sure, I’m happy to, thanks! This show is called WHO THEY ARE. As a figurative artist, I prefer working with a live model. The models featured in my work are almost all New Orleans residents. A good portrait drawing or painting will invite you into the inner world of the person sitting for the piece, into who they are. I decided to frame the drawings included in this show primarily with vintage frames. I hope to create a space that invites you into a cozy curated gallery experience, with lots of tasteful nudity.
How are you feeling about the show? Tell us a little about the gallery that you’ll be exhibiting in.
I have exhibited new work in two group gallery shows already in 2024. This show opening at Front is a full room of my work, more comprehensively. All the work has been created in the last two years. I am honored to be a guest artist at Front Gallery with two other artists, in other rooms. They are Trenity Thomas and E Marshall. It is going to be a powerful show. My friend and the co-curator for my show is Christine Crooks, who is a Front Gallery collective member. The Front is an artist-led nonprofit gallery space that offers community programming, live music, and lectures, among other things. It is a wonderful art collective rooted in the local community.
How did you fall into art? Are you formally trained or did you start as a hobbyist and teach yourself?
I was one of those kids who was constantly marking art and music. I studied figurative sculpture, photography, printmaking, drawing, and painting. I still dabble in multiple mediums. In my twenties, I studied figurative sculpture for a year at Long Beach State University. I ended up getting a Bachelor of Fine Art in 1997 from San Francisco State University, which had an excellent painting and drawing program. Afterward, I kept painting and making art, showing in a gallery in downtown San Francisco. I ended up having the fortune to study painting and become a pupil of the great painter, David Leffel for a time in the early 2000s. I kept painting and drawing over the years but didn’t seek out shows in art galleries. I was a touring musician for a number of years, and I prioritized keeping up a practice of art for the curiosity and joy of it.
What do you enjoy most about creating art?
I studied to become a certificated paralegal and volunteered to provide legal support for grassroots organizers in the Bay Area for many years. This work led me back to fundamental questions we should ask ourselves: What are we fighting for? Hopefully, for a better world for humanity. Art reminds us of that. In 2021, I moved to New Orleans after 25 years in the Bay Area. I have been lucky to find a vibrant community of like-minded artists living and making artwork in and for New Orleans. I love getting to uplift the multi-faceted beauty of the people of this place.
Which artists do you find yourself influenced by, or which do you particularly admire?
I am a fan of Rembrandt, Vermeer, Caravaggio, Kehinde Wiley, Ann Gale, Tai-Shan Schierenberg, Anders Zorn, Basquiat, Robert Rauschenberg, and Barry McGee. There are scores of local artists I admire greatly.
Do you have any thoughts about the art scene in New Orleans? Are there any local artists/galleries that you particularly like?
I like some of the galleries on Julia Street, the LeMieux Galleries have great taste. Sullivan Gallery on Magazine Street and Camp Street Studios are lovely places to see art. I enjoy some of the shows that come through the Ogden and NOMA. There is an amazing portraiture and figurative art scene in New Orleans that rarely gets featured in galleries. I have found the art community here warm and encouraging to beginners, dabblers, and professionals alike. New Orleans has a vibrant community of working figurative artists, gathering every week around town to practice replicating how light falls on the anatomy of a live figurative model. We also root each other on.
You’re also a very committed advocate and legal professional in the area of democracy and social justice - if people want to support this work, can we direct their attention and money anywhere that’s helpful to the work you do?
Thanks for highlighting how I spend an awful lot of my other time! I have worked as a paralegal in federal court-appointed criminal defense work and civil rights. I have worked on criminal justice reform, police misconduct, free speech litigation, and now, these days, voting rights. Now, I am a paralegal and research coordinator for a national civil rights nonprofit, the Advancement Project, fighting to eliminate barriers that Black and Brown voters face in the South through grassroots advocacy, research, and civil rights litigation. We are litigating to fight voter suppression in Georgia and Florida, in particular. Find out more here!
Carey's show opens (with new art from Trenity Thomas and E Marshall) at The Front Gallery this Saturday, August 10th. Click here for more information.