Festival International de Louisiane has announced Cayla Zeek as the Official 2017 Visual Artist. Zeek has created a piece that captures the spirit and joy of the nation’s largest international music festival.
“For as long as I can remember, I have been drawn to symbols of birds in storytelling as a tool to foreshadow an event,” says Zeek in a release announcing her selection as the Official 2017 Visual Artist. “In this particular piece, the Brown Pelican characterizes the southern setting of Festival International de Louisiane and acts as a bearer of the festival to come."
Drawn out from the bird is an offering of diverse flags from the many nations tied to this francophone festival and local community. The playfulness in the figures of this piece encompass the whimsical spirit of music, art, and people - the core ingredients that give Festival International de Louisiane its unique flavor.
“Cayla is extremely talented and has created a masterpiece that accurately represents the francophone and international heritage that Festival stands for,” says Stephen Gaubert, Festival International’s Board President.
Zeek’s design will serve as the inspiration for the official Festival poster and cloisonné pin.
“My eagerness to attend Festival International is something I have felt annually since I went to my first one as a young gal,” notes Zeek. “I wanted L' ami à plumes de la Fête to represent that feeling of anticipation for this exceptional event.”
Zeek is from Lafayette, and graduated in 2015 from the University of Louisiana with a Bachelor of Fine Arts. Her art is characterized by mixed media layering process with watercolor, pen, charcoal, acrylic and oil on paper or canvas.
She gathers inspirations from her many travels, birds, children’s literature, mythology, as well as her experiences growing up as a woman in Louisiana. Zeek was the recipient of the Visual Arts Spark Award and Outstanding Student Award from the University of Louisiana as well as other scholarships that have been key in her pursuit of painting.
Her work is shown through many exhibitions hosted at the Acadiana Center for the Arts, and in other galleries in Downtown Lafayette, Breaux Bridge, and New Orleans.
She works as a designer/illustrator and has started growing her own hand-drawn illustration business, Mattea’s Hand. Zeek’s designs are currently carried in stores all over the nation and even in Australia. She is also a Middle School Art Teacher at Ascension Episcopal School where she inspires young minds to get excited about art-making. Her work can be seen at www.matteashand.com and www.caylazeek.com.
L' ami à plumes de la Fête will be on display at La Fête du Festival, a ticketed fundraising event on Friday, Nov. 11, at Warehouse 535 and will be up for silent auction.