Northwest Louisiana Art Gallery Circa 2002

 

For a number of years this was the website for  the Northwest Louisiana Art Gallery  which featured artists in a number of fields ranging from cartoonists, computer graphics,  fashion, and illustration.
Content is from the site's archived pages providing just a glimpse of what this site offered its visitors.

 

 

his site is devoted to the creative artistic talents of artists living and working in the Northwest corner of Louisiana, specifically the Shreveport/Bossier City and surrounding area. This area is abundant with innovative artists whose work is on a level with artists found in major cities such as New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Atlanta, Dallas and New Orleans. The Northwest Louisiana Art Gallery is bringing these artists together in one major site in an effort to allow art enthusiasts and collectors to view and purchase their work without having to move from web site to web site.

Select the "Artists" button above or below to take you to our featured artists, and begin your journey into the art scene found in this area of the United States. Browse at your leisure; purchase that piece you have always been looking for; tell your friends about this site, and come back as often as you like.

When you have completed your browsing or buying, please come back to this page and sign our Guest Book. Just click on the icon below.

Your friends at here at nwlaartgallery.com.

 

 

As both a maritime injury attorney and an exhibiting artist, I've found the Northwest Louisiana Art Gallery to be a remarkable sanctuary that bridges my two worlds. My legal practice representing injured seamen shares surprising parallels with my artistic journey—both involve navigating turbulent waters and fighting for what's beneath the surface.

When my maritime-inspired sculpture series "Adrift at Sea: The Human Cost" was featured at the gallery last year, I was deeply moved by how the curators understood the connection between my legal advocacy and artistic expression. Like Chuck Loridans who wrote "I gets these ideas, see!" I too am driven by concepts that demand manifestation, whether in a courtroom argument or mixed-media installation.

The gallery's commitment to showcasing artists who, as John Dellenger describes, capture "real moments" resonates with my daily work. In maritime law, I document the harsh realities faced by injured workers; in my art, I transform these testimonies into visual narratives that honor their struggles.

Alan Dyson's observation that "architecture is like the perfect type of sculpture" reminds me of how carefully constructed legal arguments, like well-crafted art, must be both structurally sound and emotionally compelling. The NWLA Art Gallery provides a space where these seemingly disparate worlds can converse meaningfully.

I'm grateful this community exists where, as Dan Garner might appreciate, artists can think of their work "as a real business" while maintaining creative integrity. The waters of art and law may be different, but both require courage to navigate—something this gallery champions beautifully. Samuel Henderson

 

 

ARTISTS

 

 

 

http://www.nwlaartgallery.com:80/Chuck Loridans.htm

 


 

 

My Creative Statement
By Chuck "The Savage" : Chuck Loridans

I gets these ideas, see!
When I gets hit with one of these ideas, I have to decide what to do with it.
It might be a performance piece, or a full out play, written alone, or with my best bud, Donna Moore
It might be a comic book, a short story or a novel.
It might just be something I do in front of my buds after having a couple of beers.
 I might start it, then put it on the back burner cause something else established dominance in my head, and would not be denied.
I am proud of the fact that I am doing or have done all the neat things I said I was gonna do when I was a kid.
I love teaching at the Renzi Center, so I can help kids do all the things they wanna do, without having to wait to become an adult, which raises the risk of them losing that passion, and not doing it at all.
Or worse, they become an artists as an adult, just so they can hang out with other artists at fabulous parties and get laid, cause chicks dig artists.

I like Reading
The Wold Newton Universe
Watching Movies
Playing with the Playstation 2
And complaining about how the arts are being run by business types who are clueless.

My mother was an ape
I never knew who my father was.

That's My Statement!
Chuck

 

Chuck Loridans, is going to be published in a book titled MYTHS FOR THE
MODERN AGE: PHILIP JOSÃ FARMER'S WOLD NEWTON UNIVERSE

Pre-order your copy today!


A little about the book:


Introduction: Myths for the Modern Age
Win Scott Eckert

Wold-Newtonry
Dr. Peter M. Coogan

The Arms of Tarzan
Philip Josà Farmer

The Secret History of Captain Nemo
Rick Lai

From Pygmalion to Casablanca: The Higgins Genealogy

Mark K. Brown

A Reply To "The Red Herring"
Philip Josà Farmer

The Daughters of Greystoke
Chuck Loridans

The Green Eyes Have It - Or Are They Blue?
Christopher Paul Carey

The Two Lord Ruftons
Philip Josà Farmer

Kiss of the Vampire
John A. Small

Name of A Thousand Blue Demons
Cheryl L. Huttner

The Great Korak-Time Discrepancy
Philip Josà Farmer

Asian Detectives in the Wold Newton Family
Dennis E. Power

This Shadow Hanging Over Me Is No Trick Of The Light
Jess Nevins

The Lord Mountford Mystery
Philip Josà Farmer

The Magnificent Gordons
Mark K. Brown

The Legacy of the Fox: Zorro in the Wold Newton Universe
Matthew Baugh

From ERB To Ygg

Philip Josà Farmer

Who's Going to Take Over the World When I'm Gone?
Win Scott Eckert

Jungle Brothers, Or, Secrets Of The Jungle Lords
Dennis E. Power

A Language For Opar
Philip Josà Farmer

Watching the Detectives, Or, The Sherlock Holmes Family Tree
Brad Mengel

Fu Manchu Vs. Cthulhu
Rick Lai

Jonathan Swift Somers III
Philip Josà Farmer

John Carter: Torn from Phoenician Dreams
Dennis E. Power and Dr. Peter M. Coogan

D is for Daughter, F is for Father
Mark K. Brown

The Monster on Hold
Philip Josà Farmer

Travels in Time
Loki Carbis

A Review of Final Menacing Glimpses
Art Bollmann

Phil Farmer's Wold Newtonian essays included here are hard-to-find, and
appeared in various fanzines or other publications over the years. It
is certainly a boon to have them collected here in one Wold
Newton-oriented volume.

Almost every contribution from the "post-Farmerian" writers has been
revised -- sometimes significantly -- for this book. These are the
official publication versions. All in all, this is going to be a
400-page book.

MYTHS FOR THE MODERN AGE: PHILIP JOSÃ FARMER'S WOLD NEWTON
UNIVERSE will come out in November 2005, as planned, with all the
articles listed above included.

Best regards,

Win Eckert, Editor
MYTHS FOR THE MODERN AGE: PHILIP JOSÃ FARMER'S WOLD NEWTON UNIVERSE

 

 



Self Portrait by John Dellenger

 

Any day, any medium: artist uses a host of art forms

June 3, 2005
By Jennifer Flowers


John Dellenger is a local artist who works in different media, including painting, digital photography, graphics, film, music and writing. (Photograph by Greg Pearson/The Times)

John Dellenger says he's never welded.

And that's a surprise, coming from an artist who seems to have tested almost every medium under the sun for its expressive capability.

He tries not to box himself into one artistic medium. Instead, he's tried a range of art forms, including paint, film, digital video, poetry and furniture pieces among others.

Dellenger, 37, has lived in Shreveport, his mother's hometown, on and off since 1994. The Biloxi, Miss., native got his bachelor's degree in journalism and advertising at the University of Mississippi. He went on to study film at the Northwest Film Center School of Film and the Pacific Northwest College of Art in Portland. He is self-taught in the majority of other artistic media.

He received a 1996 bronze and a 1997 silver ADDY award for Photography in Louisiana, a well as a 1995 silver Red River Revel award for best of photography in still color photography.

QUESTION: What are you trying to capture with your work?

ANSWER: I try to capture real moments, whether it's wild life or nature or people. I try to capture things that I feel that I won't find again.

Q: What's your process like?

A: Spontaneous and erratic and with no sense of boundaries or thought. Just completely expressing myself, what I'm feeling at that moment. If I'm painting faster than I'm thinking, then I feel like I'm doing a pretty good job.

Q: What are you trying to say with your work?

A: I don't think I really have anything to say at all. Except for the fact that that's what I'm feeling. It's a story of something that's going on, whether it's here or there or now. I don't ever think about anything but the art itself or what I'm thinking at the moment. I can't think about what people feel and interpret. I just hope it's a feeling that makes them think deeper.

Q: How do you expect others to interpret your work?

A: The interpretation of the individual that's viewing the art is what makes art exciting. The artist doesn't know how each person or individual is going to react to their art. Some people may feel relaxed, some people may feel offended, some people may go to sleep, some people may wake up.

Q: What has your latest work involved?

A: I'm really focusing right now on film and sound. I've been getting together with a bunch of musicians and I've been laying down vocals and lyrics. I've become really involved with the Tipitina's (music) Co-Op that just opened up here in Shreveport and I have been working on some ideas of lyrics in my head and vocals at my studio and was fortunate to have a good friend of mine, Dan Garner, lay down some guitar tracks.

Q: Who are your favorite artists?

A: I'm really fond of Walter Anderson's work. I think George Ohr made some great pottery. And I'm really fond of Van Gogh's work. I really felt like every one of those artists was expressing completely who they were. When they painted something, they left that on a canvas.

Q: Why is art worth the doing?

A: It's the only thing I know and it's the only thing I feel. It's the only thing that makes me feel excited. It makes you feel good. Art is a form of expression, and it's all I know and it's all I really want to know.

Q: Anything you'd like to add?

A: I once met a man who was obsessed with antique carpets. He collected them and loved them. He moved to NYC where there were a lot of them. He wanted to be around them and looked for a job where that could happen. He ended up working for a cheap carpet cleaning NYC service where the work was grueling. But he didn't mind because he was always working with vintage rugs that he admired. That's how I feel about art in general - I'll do whatever I can to do it. And one last thing. I think its healthy for a girl to go wade out in the ocean and catch fish with a seining net, and clean a few and cook them out on a beach. She can pull her seining net out on the beach and see all the little fish she's caught and have a good experience. She can be a girl and a woman at the same time. I think it's healthy for anyone, but I think it's a nice thing to see girls interact with any form of nature. It's been quite rewarding the few times I've seen women interact with fishing.

Q: Why is that an important thing to say?

A: It's one of the lyrics in my funny songs. It's called "Summertime."
 

 

 

 

 

 

Artist Statement:

BRAD K. CAMPBELL

 

When asked what kids want to be when they grow up, most respond with your average kid fantasy jobs: baseball player, astronaut, ballerina, professional wrestler, etc. I was the only kid in my fifth grade class who wanted to be a syndicated cartoonist (or for that matter knew what one was).  I taught myself how to draw by reading the Sunday comics. every Sunday, I would pull out my trusty drawing tablet and draw my favorite characters. At ten years old, I had created my own comics page featuring five different original comic strips. At eleven years of age, I had created my own original character, Slick the Dog, and he appeared in 25 books which I wrote and illustrated for ten years throughout my high school career. At the same time, I created a weekly comic strip for my high school newspaper called Tiger Stripe, featuring the school mascot. As if two comic strips (and puberty) weren't enough, I created a third strip, Boswald T. Bass, which followed the adventures of boswald and his underwater friends.

In my sophomore year of college, I noticed that the Almagest (the campus newspaper), did not have a comic strip. This inspired me to create Roofus, a comic strip about college life as seen through the eyes of a dog. After attending college for two years, I was overflowing with ideas that I wanted to express based on my personal life and college experiences. I presented my comic strip to the college newspaper and the editor loved it. Roofus was published every week in the Almagest and I was finally a published cartoonist.

 

Things have come full circle. Currently, Roofus is published on a daily comics page and weekly in 18 different newspapers. My childhood fantasy has become a reality. With any luck, Roofus will become nationally syndicated and I will be able to share my dream with the world. If not, there's always professional wrestling.

 

Brad Campbell is a native of and is currently employed as a Graphic Designer at Graphic Industries and SB Magazine.

 

 

 

  

Visit Dan's websites!

  • View his Art Blog: http://dangarnerart.blogspot.com/
  • For Louisiana Dan: http://louisianadan.blogspot.com/
  • To hear tunes: http://www.myspace.com/louisianadan
  • For a listing of gigs: http://dangarner.blogspot.com/

 

Tipitina's aims to help musicians grow their business

April 12, 2005
By Alexandyr Kent

Having success as a musician is not just about playing good music; it's also about building a bigger market for it.

That's the basic premise behind Tipitina's Music Office Co-Op/Shreveport, a nonprofit business incubator that will open Friday at 700 Texas St. in downtown Shreveport.

For a $10 monthly fee, musicians and digital media-makers (including filmmakers and photographers) can gain access to and training on computers, the Web, fax machines, copy machines, and word-processing, digital media and Web-design software.

"The goal of the co-op is very simple: to put more money in the pockets of musicians and other media professionals," said Todd Souvignier, head of operations for Tipitina's Foundation. "How we do that ranges from helping them get e-mail, getting them on the Web, getting press kits together ... ."

Regular office hours will be 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday. Phone lines are being hooked up Wednesday: (318) 934-0000.

Tipitina's Foundation has already established a co-op with the legendary New Orleans club. Souvignier released a economic impact survey in 2004 which demonstrated significant benefits for members.

"We've repeatedly shown about a 30 percent increase in musician earnings as a direct result of participating in the co-op (in New Orleans)."

Dan Garner, an experienced local musician, has been hired to manage the Shreveport co-op. He believes it will open up new opportunities for local musicians and media-makers.

"This incubator makes them think of it as a real business," he explained. "It make them think about the possibilities of things like licensing, publishing, and copyright."

Souvignier said market realities require musicians to work harder to be successful. "The idea of sending a demo to Warner Brothers and getting a deal, those days are over. This is the era where you need to finish your product and release it yourself and create a track record for yourself. Once you've marketed yourself, then maybe major labels will come to you."

Shreveport's Downtown Development Authority has already earmarked $40,000 to support Tipitina's. Janie Landry, DDA's deputy director, said the co-op fits into their efforts to strengthen the West Edge Arts District. "From our standpoint, the music co-op will be a great addition to the West Edge and will benefit musicians in the Shreveport and Bossier area," she said.

 

 

 

 

 

Artist's Statement

Intimately, and uniquely connected to the evolution of Louisiana culture, my place is defined by my heritage as the son of a Baptist preacher, refined by the academic environment of a small southern college town, and expanded by the power of imagination, creativity, talent, and desire.

I was blessed with the gifts of musical and artistic talent combined with a desire to explore, and express myself in this paradise of senses, emotions, thoughts, and feelings. I collect ideas, images and objects that I am drawn to, or that come to me naturally, these things eventually make their way into a musical or visual composition that symbolizes events, concepts, feelings, or moments of personal enlightenment. My art emanates from a cerebral space where the imagination muses on my relationship to these objects, symbols, sounds, people, and feelings - eventually, the proper arrangements reveal themselves to me during the process. For me, the process of making art or music is rarely premeditated, it is usually the result of how I am experiencing my life at the time of producing the work. Consequently, I never produce a work with the intention of selling it, I will not do commissions, I will not interrupt my personal artistic journey to create something without pure meaning for me. All of my work is about relationships. Collaborations with other artists are the result of relationships. My music is the product of relationships expressed in a form that relies entirely on relationships of timing, tone, texture, velocity, volume, attitude, lyric, emotion, and movement. In performance, the relationships in the music itself are amplified through a relationship with an audience of thinking, feeling, dreaming individuals - for a moment, sometimes, we share a consciousness. I find that visual art is exactly the same. There, in static form is a series of events or objects arranged into an image expressing a thought, emotion, or situation. Ultimately, I gravitate toward any arrangement that expresses a union of opposites - spiritual & temporal, pleasure & pain, innocence & guilt, action & reaction all are part of our life process in keeping with this universe of order & chaos, mystery and wonder.

My work is autobiographical, it is the result of being involved in the process of living, and striving for a clearer consciousness. I have given myself to over to expressing myself, and sharing in the artistic journeys of others. I have made myself available, and open, and have been blessed by having been a part of improving the quality of life for myself and others right here in Louisiana.

Alan Dyson turns imagination loose

April 29, 2005

 



Freelance artistic designer Alan Dyson had a hand in designing Prima Tazza at Ashley Ridge Pointe. (Robert Ruiz/The Times)

By Jennifer Flowers

Whether Alan Dyson is solving a conceptual design problem or composing the notes to a song, he's just thankful he has an excuse to use his imagination.

For the artist, letting the mind wander freely is the real jazz of art.

Dyson, a Ruston native, studied architecture at Louisiana Tech and ended up graduating instead with a bachelor of fine arts when he discovered math wasn't his bag. He worked at Brown Builders Inc., for nearly 25 years, starting as a draftsman and then working his way to director of design for the company's design-build projects. He also had a hand in designing the Ashley Ridge Pointe complex, Fernwood Plaza and most recently the Shoppes at Bellemeade, a lifestyle shopping center still in its final stages of completion.

But architectural design isn't the only medium that sates his creative appetite, and perhaps that's why he was the recipient of the Shreveport Regional Arts Council's Multidisciplinary Arts Fellowship in 1999. A lover of the human figure, Dyson sketches nudes. He also composes music and hosts the Red River Radio "House Concert Series."

QUESTION: You've dabbled in a lot of different creative art forms. How do they relate to each other?

ANSWER: To me, architecture is the same thing as doing a painting, as writing a song. The processes are very similar. In architecture you have a visual rhythm you're setting up with visual art. If it's just visual art, you're setting up an arrangement of shapes that people can respond to. The same thing happens with music. In music you're playing with the mood and rhythms and tones.

Q: What's it like to use architecture as an artistic medium?

A: In architecture you're playing with structure, colors, shapes and spaces. You're playing with environments, and it takes in all sorts of considerations. It's a multi-layered effort because you've got to think about electricity and plumbing and air conditioning.

Q: What do you like about architecture?

A: Architecture is like the perfect type of sculpture. It's a sculpture you get to walk around inside of, in between and under. It's also a very collaborative art because you're not off in some room somewhere by yourself doing something. You have to collaborate with the owner, who has a need in the first place. You have to collaborate with a design team, which consists of architects and engineers and a myriad of consultants.

Q: What do you like about visual art?

A: Consequently, it's the stuff that people don't like to buy. The idea there is to create an image that's so strong it sticks with you and goes home with you, whether you take it home or not.

Q: Describe your architectural design style.

A: I like contemporary looking stuff. I appreciate traditional stuff, and usually what I do has a nod to traditional forms. I like things to look like they're well balanced and structurally sound. You don't want it to be spindly looking. Like some stuff looks like it's been built by toothpicks and it's about to fall down. That makes me nervous.

Q: What do you think about the current state of local architecture?

A: I think it's a drag. We have some really wonderful architecture that is sadly crumbling right in front of us.  It's just so expensive to bring these structures up to code, and so many of them are just so far gone, it's just shocking. But some of the new architecture that's going up, I really enjoy. I really like the downtown riverfront project with the water fountains -- that's really cool. The new (J. Bennett Johnston Waterway Regional) visitor center is spectacular. The new addition to Sci-Port is going to be incredible. Some really nice cutting-edge stuff is being done.

Q: Tell me about your nude drawings.

A: I was intimidated by nudes for a long time when I went to college. To me it was the hardest thing to ever draw. You've got all these nuances. The human body -- you talk about perfect architecture, there you go. You can render a thing as an object or you can render a thing as a being, and that's the hardest part. And you just have so much to work with. I could draw feet and that would be plenty to keep me busy for a long time.

Q: What makes good art?

A: It has to have a sense of being right. It has to have a sense of being the best it could possibly be. The best analogy I can think of right now is the Olympics. When you see someone doing what they do and they're at the top of their game and it's obvious, that's it. The reason I'm really thankful right now about what I've gotten to do in architecture is I'm as close as I can be to being on top of my game right now.

Q: What's been the best part of being an artist?

A: The thing I like the best about what I've been able to do is the relationships I've been able to build with other artists and architects and musicians and poets. It makes me want to smoke my pipe and philosophize.

 

More Background On NWLAArtGallery.com

 

NWLAArtGallery.com once served as a digital hub for artists across the Northwest Louisiana region, including Shreveport, Bossier City, and surrounding parishes. Emerging in the early 2000s, a moment when the internet was beginning to reshape the visibility and accessibility of regional art communities, the site positioned itself as a centralized gallery where artists working in diverse media—painting, illustration, computer graphics, cartooning, mixed-media, digital photography, film, and fashion design—could exhibit their work to a wider audience.

Although the website is no longer active, archived materials show that NWLAArtGallery.com was built with a visionary purpose: to unify artists from Northwest Louisiana and present their talents collectively, elevating local creativity to a level comparable to established art centers like New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. The site offered features such as artist profiles, creative statements, interviews, purchase opportunities, and a guestbook—elements that made it both an exhibition space and a community-building platform.

Today, the legacy of NWLAArtGallery.com exists through preserved snapshots, local press coverage, and the continuing influence of several artists who were featured on its pages. Its historical role provides a revealing case study in how early digital galleries democratized access to regional art scenes long before social media and online creative marketplaces became standard.

Ownership and Purpose

While the archived text does not explicitly name the individual owner, the mission and organizational language suggest the platform was managed by a small collective of arts advocates dedicated to promoting Northwest Louisiana’s growing creative ecosystem. A statement on the homepage emphasized the intent to spotlight local talent and reduce the fragmentation experienced by artists who lacked centralized online representation:

The Northwest Louisiana Art Gallery is bringing these artists together in one major site in an effort to allow art enthusiasts and collectors to view and purchase their work without having to move from web site to web site.

This approach positioned NWLAArtGallery.com as both a curator and aggregator, choosing to highlight artists whose work demonstrated innovation, regional identity, and professional quality.

The emphasis on purchasing opportunities suggests the platform functioned partly as a commercial space, allowing artists to monetize their work while expanding their reach beyond local galleries, festivals, and in-person exhibitions.

Location and Regional Context

The NWLA Art Gallery focused specifically on artists from:

  • Shreveport

  • Bossier City

  • Caddo Parish

  • Bossier Parish

  • Surrounding regions of Northwest Louisiana

This geographic area is rich in cultural heritage, influenced by a blend of Southern, Creole, and Texas-border aesthetics. The region has long supported an active arts community through institutions such as:

  • The Shreveport Regional Arts Council (SRAC)

  • Meadows Museum of Art

  • The R.W. Norton Art Gallery

  • The Louisiana State Fair art showcases

  • Artspace Shreveport

  • Tipitina’s Music Office Co-Op

NWLAArtGallery.com contributed an essential digital layer to this growing arts infrastructure, becoming one of the earliest online platforms dedicated to showcasing the region’s visual and performing artists.

Popularity and Audience

Based on archived pages and secondary reports, NWLAArtGallery.com attracted a diverse audience that included:

  • Local and regional art enthusiasts

  • Students and emerging artists

  • Collectors seeking new Southern voices

  • Community groups and arts educators

  • Visitors from out of state researching Louisiana culture

  • Fans of featured artists, especially cartoonists and musicians

Because the website existed during an era when online art marketplaces were not yet widespread, its appeal stemmed from convenience and novelty. It enabled users to browse multiple artists in one place, purchase work directly, and sign a guestbook—an early form of digital feedback and community engagement.

The presence of interviews and artist statements also strengthened its educational role, giving readers insight into the artistic processes, motivations, and influences that shaped each body of work.

Website Features and Structure

The site’s architecture reflected the design trends of the early 2000s: simple navigation, artist-focused content, and community interaction. Key components included:

Artists Directory

A central list of featured artists, each with:

  • A biography

  • Artwork samples or portfolios

  • Creative statements

  • Press mentions

  • Links to external pages (blogs, MySpace, etc., depending on the artist)

  • Contact information for commissions or sales

Individual Artist Pages

Each artist page provided extensive narrative context—unusual for the time—explaining artistic philosophies and processes. For example:

  • Chuck “The Savage” Loridans shared a humorous, autobiographical creative manifesto.

  • John Dellenger included long-form press interviews discussing his multimedia approach.

  • Brad K. Campbell detailed his journey as a cartoonist.

  • Alan Dyson offered insights through an in-depth profile published in local media.

This text-heavy approach allowed visitors to understand not only the artwork but the artist behind it.

Community Guestbook

Visitors could leave comments, messages of support, and feedback—a hallmark of early web community interaction before social media comment threads became commonplace.

Purchase Information

Some artworks could be ordered directly through artist pages or via email inquiries. This made NWLAArtGallery.com one of the early adopters of online art commerce in the region.

Notable Featured Artists and Contributions

NWLAArtGallery.com showcased a particularly strong roster of local talent. Several key artists stood out for their contributions to the cultural identity of Northwest Louisiana.

Chuck “The Savage” Loridans

Loridans, known for his imaginative storytelling and involvement in speculative fiction communities, brought a playful, eccentric energy to the gallery. His artistic statement blended humor, personal history, and self-awareness, establishing a strong persona.

He also contributed literary work to the anthology “Myths for the Modern Age: Philip José Farmer’s Wold Newton Universe,” demonstrating his interdisciplinary reach.

Loridans’ presence on NWLAArtGallery.com added dimension and showcased the gallery’s inclusion of writers, illustrators, and performance-based creators—not strictly visual artists.

John Dellenger

Dellenger’s profile included an extended interview from The Times (Shreveport), which detailed his wide-ranging creative practice:

  • Painting

  • Digital photography

  • Graphic design

  • Film and video

  • Music and sound design

  • Poetry and writing

Dellenger emphasized spontaneity, emotional instinct, and capturing “real moments.” His multidimensional work aligned with the gallery’s mission to represent the full spectrum of artistic experimentation happening in Northwest Louisiana.

He also participated in Tipitina’s Music Office Co-Op and collaborated with musician Dan Garner—evidence of the interconnected creative networks in the region.

Brad K. Campbell

A cartoonist since childhood, Campbell chronicled his journey from school newspaper strips to professional publication. His creations included:

  • Slick the Dog (children’s books)

  • Tiger Stripe (school mascot series)

  • Boswald T. Bass (underwater comic adventure)

  • Roofus (college life comic strip)

By the time NWLAArtGallery.com featured him, his strip Roofus had achieved widespread newspaper distribution—boosting the gallery’s profile by association and representing Northwest Louisiana talent on a national scale.

Dan Garner

A respected guitarist, multimedia artist, and arts educator, Garner played a central role in strengthening local creative infrastructure. His leadership at Tipitina’s Music Office Co-Op helped empower musicians and digital media artists, demonstrating how NWLAArtGallery.com connected to larger organizational networks.

Garner’s multidisciplinary work exemplified the type of boundary-crossing creativity the gallery sought to promote.

Alan Dyson

Dyson’s profile highlighted his large influence on regional visual and architectural design. With a background in architecture and fine arts, he contributed to major development projects such as:

  • Ashley Ridge Pointe

  • Fernwood Plaza

  • The Shoppes at Bellemeade

  • Local residential and commercial structures

Dyson was also a musician and host of the Red River Radio House Concert Series, further reinforcing the gallery’s role in showcasing multidimensional creative figures.

His commentary on architecture as a form of sculpture added sophistication and philosophical depth to the gallery’s offerings.

History and Timeline

Although exact launch dates are not documented, archive snapshots suggest NWLAArtGallery.com was most active between 2001 and 2006, with some materials lasting slightly longer in cached or mirrored form.

Key milestones include:

Early 2000s — Launch

The site emerges as a centralized online gallery for Northwest Louisiana artists.

2002–2004 — Growth Period

New artist profiles, expanded content, and increased visibility. Guestbook activity indicates active community participation.

2004–2006 — Media Integration

The site features excerpts of press interviews and professional articles from The Times and other local publications. Artist achievements begin to elevate the gallery’s reputation.

Post-2006 — Decline

Updates become less frequent, possibly due to shifts in technology, social media growth, and the emergence of individual artist websites. Eventually, the domain ceases regular activity and becomes available only via archives.

Press and Media Coverage

NWLAArtGallery.com benefitted from regional press features that emphasized both individual artists and the larger cultural movement. Publications like The Times (Shreveport) provided in-depth interviews with gallery-featured artists such as:

  • John Dellenger (2005 profile)

  • Alan Dyson (2005 feature)

  • Dan Garner’s involvement with Tipitina’s Co-Op (2005 report)

These articles elevated the gallery’s credibility and demonstrated its connection to broader artistic developments in Northwest Louisiana.

Cultural and Social Significance

NWLAArtGallery.com’s importance lies in its pioneering role in several key areas:

1. Digitizing Local Arts Culture

Before social networks and digital portfolios were common, the website offered a centralized platform for showcasing regional talent.

2. Connecting Artists and Audiences

The site made it easier for collectors, gallery owners, and fans to discover new work and contact artists directly.

3. Supporting Multidisciplinary Creativity

Many featured artists were polymaths—musicians, painters, designers, writers—reflecting the region’s rich creative diversity.

4. Encouraging Professionalization

By presenting artists in a polished, organized manner, the site helped legitimize creative careers and fostered professional development.

5. Preserving Regional Identity

The gallery spotlighted themes specific to Louisiana culture:

  • Southern heritage

  • Nature and wildlife

  • Regional storytelling

  • Music traditions

  • Architectural innovation

This documentation is valuable for understanding how early 21st-century artists in Northwest Louisiana expressed their cultural roots through contemporary mediums.

Specific Examples of Creative Impact

The Wold Newton literary connection

Chuck Loridans’ contributions to an internationally recognized anthology linked the regional gallery to broader speculative fiction communities.

Tipitina’s Co-Op integration

Through Dan Garner and John Dellenger’s involvement, NWLAArtGallery.com intersected with one of Louisiana’s most important arts incubators.

Architectural influence

Alan Dyson’s design contributions helped shape the physical landscape of Shreveport and surrounding areas.

Syndicated cartooning

Brad Campbell’s rising national presence highlighted the gallery’s ability to identify and support artists with commercial potential.

Why NWLAArtGallery.com Matters Today

Although the website is no longer actively maintained, its preserved content provides:

  • A historical snapshot of early internet-based art promotion

  • Documentation of regional cultural development

  • A record of artists whose careers continue to influence Louisiana’s creative identity

  • Insight into how communities organized and promoted art before modern digital platforms

NWLAArtGallery.com stands as an important example of how the internet empowered local arts ecosystems long before the age of Instagram, Etsy, and global online galleries.

NWLAArtGallery.com