My last post about my favorite NOLA ice cream shop mentioned some delicious flavors. This post is dedicated to some beautiful art currently displayed there. The past few times I have visited The Creole Creamery, I noticed a strikingly beautiful painting of the city’s map.

Known as the Crescent City for its obvious croissant-like shape, any map of the city is, in my viewpoint, beautiful. The many streets head in a diagonal direction towards the Mississippi River (this makes my already dysfunctional sense of direction even more bewildered). Nonetheless, it makes for a great art piece!

This particular painting is called “Happy Chocolate City” by New Orleans native artist Carol Peebles. Known for her portraits and dedication to teaching, her impressive resume makes it clear that she is extremely talented and passionate about her life’s work: art. “Happy Chocolate City” seems to be a fun vacation from her normally intense portraits. It infuses the magic and wonderment of Willy Wonka’s world into the Crescent City and intersperses quotations and symbols from the movie throughout the map for the viewer to discover. Looking from afar, one can also notice a face with closed eyes within the painting. She makes use of mixed media and gold leaf to create the illuminated map. She also has another version of the map called “Phoenix Rising” which is just as beautiful (but perhaps not as whimsical). Visit her gallery for more lovely pieces!