It’s Good To Be Here « Candy Chang

It’s Good To Be Here

Feeling New Orleans

New Orleans. Someone’s blowing a trumpet on one corner, someone’s building a mystery space machine on the other, and across the street by a boarded-up building someone’s painting their shotgun house pink and green. NOLA lets you be you. Everyone says hello like you’re old friends, even if you just showed up. Just being here means something. The Marigny and Bywater feel like they were drawn by a five-year-old, in the very best way. Sit on your porch for an hour and you’ll make five new friends and hug the neighborhood cat. Mr. Okra drives by in his fruit truck and we run. A girl on a bike staples a flyer to a pole. I buy my wine at the same place my neighbor is doing his laundry. Friends walk three blocks to get home. A neighborhood association board member shows me a scrap book of every new tree planted. Ask people why they live here and they get emotional. It’s because there was an instant connection. It’s because there’s something about this city. It’s good to be here.

2010 and beyond, 25″ x 10″, Stencils and temporary spray chalk on sidewalk.