La Belle et La Bête
March 20th, 2026
Featured Artists
Shirley Yang Crutchfield
Shirley Yang Crutchfield is a Chicago-based artist whose gold-leafed works draw on art history, fashion, contemporary heroines and her own entrepreneurial journey. She uses traditional 14th-century Italian gilding methods to create portraits of women that shine both literally and symbolically with beauty, grit, and timeless strength. Her work is influenced by Byzantine art, Renaissance, Baroque and contemporary aesthetics, fashion, and the portrayal of strong female figures. Shirley has exhibited at galleries internationally, including Sun Valley Contemporary (Sun Valley), Dacia Gallery (New York), Chicago Fine Art Salon (Chicago), Echo Park Art (Los Angeles), and Las Laguna Art Gallery (Laguna Beach), and her work has won several international awards.
Laine Lovick
Laine Lovick is a New Orleans–based artist whose work spans atmospheric landscapes, architectural abstractions, and gestural studies of the human figure. She studied Studio Art at the LSU School of Design, where she developed a deep interest in interpreting form through movement and simplified, expressive mark-making. Her work draws on influences from architectural minimalism, classical figure study, and contemporary explorations of emotional presence. Laine’s practice merges structure and intuition to create pieces that explore resilience, identity, and the quiet narratives held within the human form. Her use of repurposed materials ties her practice to minimalism, pairing raw surfaces with raw media such as charcoal and conté. This approach distills the human form to its essentials, emphasizing immediacy and the integrity of the gesture.
Gordan Massman
Gordon Massman (b. 1949) is a self-taught painter and poet based in Rockport, MA. Massman’s subjects, while usually psychologically distressed, are offset by a subtle sense of humor, either on the canvas itself or in witty titles. Parodying his own angst and that of the human race with poetic sincerity, Massman’s paintings are shameless confessions of the human psyche, unfolded in graphic, chaotic detail. Massman studied literature and creative writing at the University of Texas-Austin and the University of Alaska Fairbanks. He taught writing and literature at The Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts in North Adams, MA, and is the published author of five poetry volumes, having composed thousands of poems over a span of forty-five years. Massman has exhibited in the United States, and his work is in the collection of the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum.
Tess Riehlmann
Tess Riehlmann is a New Orleans based artist whose work is inspired by the unique and whimsical architecture of the city. Most days the artist rides around on her bike collecting ideas for her pieces. Through these rides her appreciation and awe of the city continues to grow as well as influence her. With a background in interior decorative painting and restoration, usually in residential spaces, the artist is able to observe the historical significance of these structures as well as the effect the outside world has on them every day. Beyond the tinkering and reconfiguring that humanity has inflicted on many of these buildings over the years, the impact the environment has had is inseparable. The ever engulfing flora and the rising waterlines are a constant reminder that no matter how large and beautiful our homes may be, nature will always be bigger and more beautiful. Riehlmann attempts to portray this in her works by playing with size and scale demonstrating our minuteness with massive botanicals and shrunken landmarks.
In this particular piece, the two famous steamboat houses built by river pilots, Milton and Mary Doullut in the early 1900s have been lifted up and sent down a rather aggressive Mississippi river. Growing from the river are two types of lilies, Flame and Madonna, acting as obstacles for the houses turned boats. Through a somewhat storybook style, the artist comments on the everyday beauty that surrounds us, whether that be manmade or natural.
Garland Robinette
Garland Robinette was born in Texas and raised in the bayous of south Louisiana, the adopted son of an oil-rig foreman and his wife. While most of the boys and men around him spent their time hunting and fishing, he preferred drawing portraits of friends and playing the piano. The Vietnam War introduced him to a new kind of resilience, one that shaped but never diminished his natural sensitivity. He returned home with two Purple Hearts and, while battling PTSD, took a job as a janitor at a local radio station. When given a chance to speak on air, his broadcasting talent quickly became apparent, launching a lifelong career in the public eye.
Throughout his life, Robinette never stopped creating art. He began with drawing and gradually expanded into other mediums as his reputation as an artist grew. One of his earliest major commissions was the official papal portrait of Pope John Paul II during the pontiff’s visit to New Orleans.
Robinette studied at the John McCrady School of Art in the French Quarter and also performed at Le Petit Théâtre. He later enrolled at the New Orleans Academy of Fine Arts, studying under Ausoklis Ozols. He developed close friendships with fellow artists Henry Casselli and Rolland Golden, whom he credits as major influences. From Casselli, he learned to communicate emotion through his work, and from Golden, he gained an appreciation for color, perspective, and creative experimentation. He also regularly attended life drawing sessions with the spirited Pone Aliquid Group, where he painted alongside Dell Weller and other local figurative artists.
Today, Garland Robinette has come full circle, returning to his home state of Texas. He and his wife Nancy live and work in Georgetown, where they run their art studio together.
“Beauty is not only in the eye of the beholder but also in their heart. It’s the heart that sees beyond the world of form and carries us into the imagination where all is possible.”
-Garland Robinette
