Leone chose a 2012 piece by Baton Rouge-born artist Margaret Evangeline, captivated by the way the artist took something from everyday experience and transformed it into art.
Can I tell you the truth? I had no idea the museum had anything cool. I walked in here and the whole idea of what I would pick was totally turned on its head. I saw this piece and it just spoke to me. I love industrial materials and was immediately drawn to this abstract design on sheet metal. Then, when I looked more closely, I realized that the swells and depressions in the metal were created by bullet holes—that the artist actually shot the painting—it is just amazing. Everyday, people are being shot, bullets are going into concrete, into the sides of houses, into sheet metal fences, but this artist has taken that violence and constructed a piece of art around it. Taking from the everyday, and making it into a piece of art, is what I am drawn to. Now, this flat piece of metal has happened, it has lived. The artist transformed it, and gave it a story, a meaning, a purpose.
Written by Katie Pfohl