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In the 9th ward, just a few streets over from the major levee breech that flooded hundred of homes during Katrina, sits the house of Fats Domino. Totally devestated by the storm, his house sat abandoned along with the rest of the 9th ward. I had been documenting the devestation in that area as an editorial photographer and I happened to come across Fats' house. What caught my eye was the red letters painted on the house that read "RIP Fats". I began taking photographs. I was just about finished documenting the scene, when I came across two original BillBoard Chart Awards that were presented to Fats Domino in 1956. The awards were lying in the trash pile that was on the side of the house. I thought it was odd to see these in the trash, so I decided to salvage them in hopes to one day return them to their rightful owner. I made one attempt to get them back to Fats, but that seemed to be a dead end. Time went on and nothing had been done to get them back. About two and a half years had gone by, and I was asked to do a couple of sculptures that would be in a show called "New Harmonies Roots", which was in conjunction with the Smithsonian. The show was all about musicians and southern culture. I decided to assemble a sculpture that would represent Fats Domino, and I thought it would be a great idea to have the original awards attached to the sculpture. The photographs you see are different angles of the piece which I came up with as my contribution to Fats Domino. Contact has been made with Fats, and the awards will be presented back to Fats in the upcoming future. |