New Orleans Artist Crafts Katrina-Inspired Art with Sewing Machine

Mixed media artist Gina Phillips grew up in the Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans. For the past twenty years, she’s turned the trauma of Hurricane Katrina into art that hits close to home.

When floodwaters swept through her studio, she lost all her equipment. Instead of quitting, she found creative fuel in her loss and started making pieces that captured both the pain and the stubborn resilience of her neighborhood.

Today, Phillips’ work keeps shifting and growing. She uses a long arm quilting machine she got thanks to a Post-Katrina arts grant. Her latest piece, “Borrow Pit,” marks the twentieth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, stitching together bits of history and personal memory into a tribute to New Orleans.

The Impact of Hurricane Katrina on Gina Phillips’ Art

When Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005, Gina Phillips faced a nightmare. The water rose to her chest in her studio, wiping out everything—including the old sewing machine she’d started with.

But that disaster changed her art forever. She landed a Post-Katrina arts grant, which let her buy a long arm quilting machine. That machine didn’t just replace what she lost; it opened up new ways for her to work and let her make bigger, more detailed pieces.

Her art since then has carried the weight of Katrina. She often weaves in themes of hope and rebirth, like in her series on Fats Domino—someone who, for many, came to represent the city’s spirit after the storm.

From Traditional Quilting to Mixed Media Masterpieces

Phillips started out with traditional quilting, but she didn’t stay there for long. She calls her work a mix of painting and quilting—sometimes it feels like a painting, sometimes like a three-dimensional object you want to reach out and touch.

That long arm quilting machine really changed things for her. Working bigger let her layer on more detail and complexity. The textures and images in her art often feel like a map of her community’s tangled history.

Commemorating Hurricane Katrina: “Borrow Pit”

Her recent piece, “Borrow Pit,” looks back at Katrina twenty years later. It showed at the Ferrara Showman Gallery on Julia Street, and it tries to capture the layers of life that have shaped New Orleans since the storm.

She uses her mixed media style to make something that’s both bold and deeply moving. In “Borrow Pit,” the personal and the collective come together—she’s telling her story, but it’s also a story that belongs to so many others.

The Role of Community and Inspiration in Phillips’ Work

For Phillips, New Orleans isn’t just a setting—it’s part of her process. The city’s culture and people are always feeding her creativity.

She pulls in local legends and stories, like Fats Domino, to ground her work in real community experience. You can see her connection to the city in the themes she tackles and the materials she chooses.

By folding New Orleans’ history and culture into her pieces, Phillips both celebrates her home and wrestles with its struggles. Her art bridges past and present, offering a layered take on what it means to recover and move forward here.

Looking Forward: The Future of Gina Phillips’ Art

Phillips keeps making new work, always rooted in her Katrina experience and her fierce love for New Orleans. She’s become a key voice in the local art scene—maybe even beyond it.

That long arm quilting machine is still at the center of what she does. It’s more than just a tool now; it’s a symbol of how she’s adapted and survived. Through her art, Phillips shows how creativity can help us heal and maybe even inspire others to do the same. There’s something hopeful in that, don’t you think?

Gina Phillips’ journey as an artist really shows what creativity can do. She faced the devastation of Hurricane Katrina and channeled that experience into her art.

Through powerful mixed media works, Phillips found a way to process her story and inspire those around her. Her latest piece, “Borrow Pit,” feels especially poignant as it marks the twentieth anniversary of the storm.

In “Borrow Pit,” she weaves history and her own memories together. The result is a tribute to New Orleans that’s both personal and layered.

If you want to know more about Gina Phillips and her work, check out the original article on WGNO.