Dwelia Haas calls herself a “story telling painter”. She remembers being able to visually imagine the birds and wild animals in the stories that her mama and grandmas shared with her when she was growing up in Jones County. Drawing and story telling has always been a part of her life, and now she draws with mainly colors of blue in her own style of painting to tell stories of the creatures that share her Mississippi home.
Every since Haas was young she wanted to be an art teacher and a mama. After graduating from the University of Southern Mississippi in 1983 with a BFA degree in Arts Education, Dwelia started teaching art in the Jones County School System. She later married Nicholas Mcleod Haas Jr. from Bay St. Louis, and they were blessed with one son Nicholas Quentin Haas.
Dwelia illustrated Kristen Twedt's "My Crazy Catastrophe Cat" children books series. She sells prints of a few of her paintings, and with every print comes a story. Dwelia feels like that is her way of continuing the southern story telling tradition.


To order a print by Haas call P.Sumrall at Westside Studios in Hattiesburg 601-270-5506 or go by Frames Unlimited in the North Laurel Shopping Center.

 

Jourdan River
By Dwelia Haas
(a story to go with the print)

After the storm we were without water and electricity for several days. There was a motel that had water but no electricity not far from our home. My family and I rented a room at that motel just to take showers. The water was so cold that it would take my breath, but as soon as I stepped out into the motel room I would start sweating again. It was a hot box. Well, it was a blessing that we had the room rented, because the motel got electricity a week before my home. So for a week we would work in the neighborhood and then go to the motel to sleep at night.
We took some old rabbit ears and hooked them up to the motel's television. When I had watched news programs before the storm, I had never thought about people in disaster areas not being able to see themselves on television during interviews. My family knew how strong the storm had been in south Mississippi because we experienced it, but we did not know how wide the path of destruction had been till we saw the news on the television at the motel. On the news that first night, I saw a nurse being interviewed from a medical center that had been flooded during the storm. The nurse had described looking out the medical center window and seeing the floodwaters go by. She said that she saw alligators, snakes and fish from the window. The way she described it made me think of a window looking into an aquarium. This is when I got the idea to paint the picture I named "Jourdan River".
The painting, "Jourdan River", has swirling colors of floodwaters with creatures that have been washed from their swampy home to an urban medical center. It seems like a surreal thought that came true when the storm caused creatures that don't belong in the city to arrive there so abruptly.
I went home the morning after seeing the nurse being interviewed and brought a canvas and paints to the motel. I spread newspaper all over the floor of the motel room and started my process. It was wonderful to get to paint. It was such a release of emotion. Just like a good night's sleep, I needed to paint. The results of the process are somewhat pleasing to my eye. I hope it is pleasing to most eyes. From what I understand, Mrs. Carrie Frigo purchased the original painting "Jourdan River" at Justduit Again in Bay St. Louis for her husband Dr. Chris Frigo. Because of the painting, the creatures from the flood are once again in an urban environment, but this time they are just hanging out on the wall in the doctor's office.

River's Deer

This is a small print of a painting named after a little Mississippi boy named River.   

Mrs. Mac's Pond Debris
by Dwelia T. Haas
(a story to go with the print)

I had been working on one of my fish paintings that eventually became "Mrs. Mac's Pond Debris" when I remembered my friend telling me about her mother's pond getting destroyed during Hurricane Katrina. You could tell that my friend was really worried about the pond because she mentioned the pond debris every time we talked. My friend told me about all the trees that were uprooted or snapped into her mother's pond. She was worried that all the debris that fell into the pond would kill the fish. My friend's mother, Mrs. Mac, has ducks too. The elderly kind ladies were worried about the ducks getting tangled in the debris. That makes my mind think of another "to be debris" painting that could include a duck.
Anyway, my imagination got the best of me. I could visualize what a pond in Mississippi would have in it after a storm. Since my neighborhood was full of debris, I had plenty of inspiration. Red roof shingles were first to come to my mind. Flowers, oak leaves, nails, personal things such as jewelry were added to the painting. I added seashells that traveled to a place that they normally would not be, and then I added things from New Orleans like the Mardi Gras beads. I put a reflection of a hurricane in the eye of the colorful fish. A bottle's cap and of course a love bug were added to make the picture complete.
Unlike the description of the real Mrs. Mac's pond catastrophe, the pond in my imagination was beautiful because it was full of things that remind me of Mississippi (especially the pine needles). With God's help Mrs. Mac's ducks and fish have survived Katrina's mess. The pond has been cleaned and the debris has been taken away, but the imagination of a Mississippi pond with storm debris is now on canvas for everyone to see, and I call that painting "Mrs. Mac's Pond Debris".