Before Katrina hit and destroyed her native city, Melissa Turner Drumm relocated to Dallas unaware that she'd soon have artistic inspiration no one would ever hope for. Her city was flushed, razed and broken by nature and shoddy prevention. In Dallas, she not only had a place to view all the newscasts, but also her former neighbors, some becoming neighbors again. In the past year, Drumm has created copper-based pieces, from which she's chosen 15 for Disturbing the Piece at the McKinney Avenue Contemporary. She's etched, waxed and painted. She's flamed and hammered. Her physical work not only parallels, in a way, the work citizens of New Orleans had to do to re-create their homesteads but her themes pay homage to beginning again after destruction—compared in MAC statements to the destruction of Eden and, there, thistles and thorns being the only things left from which to rebuild. Disturbing the Piece shows through December 15 in the MAC’s New Works Space. The MAC is located at 3120 McKinney Ave. Hours are 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays. Visit the-mac.org.
Nov. 3-Dec. 15, 2007