Chauvin artist Kassie Voisin is anything but the stereotypical ‘starving artist,’ having found a way to turn her natural talent into a successful business painting murals and window displays for Lafourche and Terrebonne Parish area businesses.
Voisin, 29, began painting at an early age, some of her first mural projects being the walls of her own bedroom as a child.
“I’d always paint my walls; the walls in my childhood bedroom probably have six inches of paint layers from all of the practice when I was a kid,” she chuckled.
Her lifelong love of art eventually led her to start her own mural painting business in her early 20s. Voisin’s business grew organically over the years, starting first with children’s murals, residential homes, canvas art and related jobs – any sort of project to get her name out in the public. She then got the travel bug and began seeking projects all over the United States in larger cities like Los Angeles.
“For five years, I traveled all over the country,” Voisin said. “I traveled to paint hospitals and urgent care clinics, restaurants.”
Voisin says after traveling several years with her mural painting business, she later found herself back in Terrebonne Parish and the bayou region, where the demand for her mural painting services continued to grow.
“I’m a local gal now; I’m really strictly in Houma and Thibodaux, painting the cities,” Voisin said.
Voisin now takes on almost exclusively corporate work and has numerous corporate contracts with various businesses and organizations that keep her busy year-round. Her work is particularly noticeable in the downtown Houma area, where she paints multiple window murals seasonally as the holidays change. Voisin says her work never gets stale, as customers’ tastes and requests change year to year.
While the aftermath of Hurricane Ida continued to impact many area businesses negatively last year, Voisin says she was fortunate to have enjoyed a steady flow of work.
“After the storm, there were a lot of mural repairs, so I didn’t really see a break that much in business,” she said.
Many commercial customers contacted her for touch-ups or major repairs to their storm-damaged murals, or in some cases she needed to completely replace prior mural work in areas where her art had been destroyed due to mold, water or wind damage.
In explaining her mural style, the local artist said that while some clients prefer more of a muted tone, her style tends to lean towards creating murals with more upbeat color palette choices.
“I’ve always gravitated towards the really bright colors, because for me - painting in our communities outside – you want it to draw people’s attention,” Voisin said. “I try to use bright colors to make things pop off the wall and really catch people’s eye as they’re passing by.”
Many of her commercial murals depict what she describes as a New Orleans-style street art look.
The artist has captured attention online by posting fascinating time lapse videos of her mural projects. Although each assignment may take several days to complete, her time lapse videos are often less than 60 seconds long, sped up to show her art quickly take shape.
Each video begins with a blank window or wall canvas, followed by the artist sketching in her design, then later painting in her final mural scheme bit by bit. By the end of each video, Voisin has brought her work to a satisfying conclusion, completing her mural with clear themes, tight lines, and beautiful, well-matched hues of color.
One of Voisin’s most impressive recent time lapse videos online is her mural project completed at Big Mike’s BBQ Smokehouse on Laura Drive in Thibodaux, featuring a large outdoor mural with brewhouse themes sewn into the design. Voisin said the owners Mike and Judith Lewis came up with overall idea to incorporate greenery and craft beer elements into the mural.
“[Judith Lewis] had the idea for the color scheme, and then she asked for a brewery vibe - the bright colors and the hops, and the emphasis on the craft beer, because they sell [craft beer] at that location,” Voisin said.
Voisin and Big Mike’s BBQ now have plans to extend the same design and mural theme onto other parts of the building, including inside near the bar area and on the outside of the building facing the nearby road.
To learn more about artist Kassie Voisin and her mural business, or to see some of her mural painting time lapse videos, visit her Facebook page ‘Murals by Kassie Voisin.’
By Kahlil Turner Gazette Writer Jan 31, 2023
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