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Tina Toussaint is a good luck Jeu Jeu (a little magic). She grew up along the bayou singing in every juke joint she could sneak into until she was of the age. She brings good luck and success to anyone lucky enough to have her hang around. An armatured figure, she is stuffed and covered in fabric. Crystals, ancient roman glass and indo -pacific beads are part of the composition.
From a young age, I have been fascinated with the construction of textile figures. From suturing stuffed animals to making costumes out of facial tissues, I taught myself how to sew. With school, career and family, I wasn’t able to pursue my fascination with textile work. After l I had been practicing law for almost 10 years, I learned to quilt and that opened a whole new world. Through traditional quilting methods, I learned the technical skills I needed to make the non-traditional quilts I love. The nature of the legal profession has allowed me to get to know a lot of the people of Louisiana, sometimes in the most absurd situations. This combined with my love of history and stories began my creation of fabric sculptures depicting those special souls, real and imaginary, whom I have been blessed to know." I work with various textiles and fibers, found or purchased materials and dried herbs to create my cloth sculptures I call “Bayou Souls”. A native of Louisiana, the bayous and waterways are my favorite spots. I love the people and the stories they love to tell. Louisiana is a gumbo of ideas, personalities, stories, songs and traditions that provide a rich palette. Some of my souls are accompanied by original tales, giving me, as an amateur writer, a chance to provide a background to the sculpture. While they are not truly voodoo dolls, Bayou Souls come from the same tradition. While I often have an idea of what I want them to look like; at the end of the process, the figures seem to have a life of their own and often dictate the result