
Francis Pavy
"Full Moon at the Blue Moon," 2024.
The Lafayette artist Francis Pavy has always been a self-proclaimed “music freak.” In our interview for this month’s “Perspectives” column, he shared a seminal memory from when he was three or four years old at his aunt’s wedding in Vacherie, and a swamp pop band was playing. “I feel like music is something that . . . it’s so ingrained in our culture, and it’s very unique. Other places don’t have it, and they want it.”
When Pavy was just out of college, a failed music major who had switched to visual arts, he haunted the “cosmic Cajun” dancehall scene of the 1970s, finding subjects everywhere. “I discovered Clifton Chenier was cooler than Muddy Waters, because he was accessible here,” he said. To this day, the music here—the music of his home—remains a major inspiration for the artist. On our cover, “Full Moon at the Blue Moon,” represents a recent night of particular “synergy” at a Cajun jam in Lafayette, “like two people make ten, like an orchestra.”