SATURDAY, MARCH 5, 2022
11:30 A.M. – 4 P.M.
ESPIRITU MEZCALERIA & COCINA
520 CAPDEVILLE STREET
NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA 70130
PROGRAM BOOK OF AVAILABLE ART
The works of Milda Spindler, a Lithuanian-born World War II refugee artist, who spent the last half of her life in Louisiana, will be shown Saturday March 5, 2022, 11:30 a.m. – 4 p.m. at Espiritu Mezcalería & Cocina, 520 Capdeville Street, New Orleans. Beer, wine, and light refreshments will be offered during the show. Proceeds from the sales will benefit Woodlands Conservancy.
This retrospective will include dozens of prints from etchings, aquatints, and woodcuts, plus oil paintings featuring scenes of Louisiana nature, and of people enjoying the outdoors or New Orleans city life and culture. The show will be held in conjunction with the monthly New Orleans Arts District Art Walk.
A Sample of Milda Spindler’s Art
More About Milda Spinder
Milda Spindler’s art, love of nature, and expression of individuality was greatly influenced by her early life’s experience as a WW II refugee. From 1941-1945 as a youth she was separated from her family and walked through five countries with her high-school classmates to stay ahead of the violence. In the final year of the war she recalled “Everything was getting really scary…We were hungry most of the time. People tried to live on one potato a day; they were wearing the only clothes they owned. Most people were happy just to be alive.” Experiences as a teenager during her formative years allowed her to see humanity at its best, and also at its worst. Spindler found ways to look for the good in people and her surroundings forcing herself to see beauty each day wherever she could find it. She mused “the flowers still bloomed and the birds still nested no matter what the war was doing around them.” It gave her peace during the storm.
Spindler emigrated to Canada and eventually Louisiana. From 1971 to 2005, she sketched, painted, and developed a unique style of metal plate etching and printmaking. She was recognized by the New Orleans Art Association and the Metairie and Jefferson Art Guilds, with over 24 juried art show awards. Before her death in 2021 Spindler reminisced “In my art one can notice hints of beauty. I think it is important to talk about a person’s individuality as a form of freedom of choice, which was so lacking in the war years.” She rarely mentioned hardships endured in the War, but chose to look forward and focus her art on the natural beauty and cultural surroundings of the New Orleans and Gulf Coast area.
She first studied at the Munson William Proctor Arts Institute in Utica, NY, and later earned a Bachelors in Fine Arts from the University of New Orleans. Spindler was mentored by some notable Louisiana artists such as Howard Jones, Cheryl Hayes, Jim Richard, and Ida Kohlmayer. The Lithuanian National Museum of Art gallery featured Spindler’s work in a 2018 show; 44 of her prints are in their permanent collection.