We were lucky to catch up with Abby Guillory recently and have shared our conversation below.

Abby , appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

One of the most meaningful pieces I have done is the Traiteur print. In South Louisiana, what many of us call cajun country, many people used to have what we called a traiteur in the area. Traiteur means faith healer. Its someone who would have been called upon in a rural area with no doctors to help cure you of your ailment by using prayers in french, local healing plants, & a few religious items. It’s considered a dying art (if you will) in Louisiana but there are a few books slowly coming out about the topic so the interest is coming back. There are even a few people around who still treat.

In my piece I used a few things that a traiteur may use. Their (warm) hands, a 9 knotted piece of rope, a jar, & four specific plants that may be used by a traiteur (sassafras, mamou, elder, & mangiler). I used red clay from an area of woods I spent half of my life growing up in as the paint, & the rest is just black lino ink!

This piece is meaningful to me because as a people, cajuns have had a hard time (back in the day). Like many other cajuns, my grandma was beaten in grade school for speaking her native language, which was French. That generation didn’t teach their own kids French (like my dad) because it wasn’t American & there was also a point in time when anything cajun equaled to trash, so many things cajun people did died off like Traiteurs (but in this case it was also partially because more doctors popped up as well). Things like this happened to the cajuns, creole, & native peoples of Louisiana so I like to make art around our traditions.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My names Abby. I’m from Louisiana & I live rurally in the woods with my boyfriend, dog, & chickens. My dad was a drawer and I got it from him. Since I was a kid I’ve always drawn or painted but not until I was an adult did I try different types of art and crafts. At 37 I landed on lino printing & woodcuts after many types of art. I usually don’t stick with one thing very long but lino has stuck with me for well over a year now. I mostly enjoy the carving part of it, I find it can be therapeutic. With lino, I print onto clothes or paper, and with the woodcuts it’s the same process of carving an image into the wood but I do not print with them but sell them as wall hangings. Two things I am most proud of is that I had my first art show in New Orleans last year with one of my favorite artists known as Church Goin Mule, and the fact that I am able to cut out pices of wood with a tool that I was not able to do before making woodcuts.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

Most of my art is based on small details from cajun, creole, & native American culture here in Louisiana. Most of the time it’s a situation of “if you know, you know” like with the traiteur piece. If you’re not from Louisiana and stumble upon that peice you most likely wouldn’t know the significance behind the piece unless I post about it (which I do). Most people outside of Louisiana only know New Orleans or if they have heard of cajuns they may only think of food & dancing (two things we are good at). My art is about the small details of our past. There’s plently of books about how the Acadians were exiled to Lousiana, and Cajun culture as it was known more so from the 1970s on up. I find in art is where you can find the interesting little details about our culture (and local landmarks) & my art is for everyone but also for my fellow cajuns who may not know interesting stories. Like how a famous bar in Mamou, Louisiana had a shooting in its parking lot & because of that, the bullet went right through the wall & through a wooden pinup girl hanging on the wall. In 2020 someone made the owner take the pinup girl down because she had a bullet hole through her. That piece is a part of cajun history in my opinion. She only exists in old photos now, but I did make a woodcut of her, bullet hole & all.

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

Oh my. I could give you a huge list of books and such that have significantly impacted me as a person but also my art. The artist George Rodrigue. He’s famous for his blue dog paintings, but those are my least favorite. It’s the people he painted. A 1990s documentary called “Good For What Ails You”. It’s about traiteurs & faith healing. It’s also free to watch on youtube (wink wink). A book called “Atchafalaya Houseboat” by Gwen Roland. It’s the real story about her & her boyfriend living in the Achafalaya Basin, which is very impressive if you know anything about the basin (and also befriending the famous wildlife photographer C.C. Lockwood). And a book I go to a lot for plant reference for my art ” The Cajun Prairie: A Natural History”.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: feral_pine_prints

Image Credits

Abby Guillory