In a recent issue of The New Yorker, film critic David Denby notes that Spike Lee's devastating documentary about Hurricane Katrina opens and closes with mock funerals for the city of New Orleans, one somber, one defiantly up-tempo. New Orleans has always greeted death with a mix of ceremony and mordant wit, and you see some of that same gritty poetry in the art of Linda Newcomb, a former resident of the city who lost her home in the hurricane and moved to St. Petersburg, where her works are on view beginning Friday in a show entitled Hurricane Wind/Mambo Moon (Keeping Our Home Alive). A familiar figure around her adopted neighborhood of Roser Park, Newcomb says she's found comfort and inspiration while walking her dog down the area's brick streets and through its lush greenery, and some of her work reflects her affection for her new home. But other pieces — photos, wall hangings, doll-like figures, some constructed from natural materials found on her walks — evoke her sense of loss with the immediacy of folk art. An opening reception with New Orleans music and food begins at 7 p.m. Fri., Sept. 15; the works are on display Sept. 15-30, at Studio@620, 620 First Ave. S., St. Petersburg, 727-895-6620.
