Blown in With Katrina

If you were to ask New Orleans illustrator Mark Andresen what his plans are being new in Atlanta he'd shrug and say "Starting over."

Andresen arrived in town on the heels of the hurricane with plans of returning. That's until it became obvious that he couldn't go back to a damaged house and neighborhood in Louisiana. Not anytime soon. Just the same, he says, he's luckier than most who had 10 feet of water in their homes.

When all work there stopped his business stopped too. Audubon Zoo was one of those clients. He was working on two murals for a new food court area. Most of the animals survived the storm but the place was damaged and half the staff let go. What remained was just keeping the animals fed.

Only one of his clients came back: McIlhenny Company, makers of that recognizably famous Louisiana product: Tabasco Hot Sauce. A year ago he was designing Tabasco graphics for the Toyko subway system's Ginza Line. Over a million people a day looking at his Cajuns wih hot sauce bottles. Now they're slowly getting back. Thier web site: www.tabasco.com is fuctioning .

And so he's looking for where to "plug into" this new city. "I'm open for business.", says Andresen.

His online portfolio is www.markandresenillustration.com and he's represented by local Art Rep Susan Wells at www.swell-art.com