Recently, on a balmy July day, art fans gathered at NUNU Art and Culture Collective in Arnaudville, a gallery and performing venue, for the opening of a much-anticipated exhibit centered around a wall display of over 900 black origami swallows in flight. The show, titled “A Bird in Hand,” is the latest collection of multi-medium artist Janelle Hebert, demonstrating her sculpting talents with paper, clay, and fabric – all reflecting a lifelong fascination. 

Hebert’s attraction to birds goes back to her childhood in St. Martinville. “My dad would take me riding and he’d identify birds by their shapes and flight patterns,” she recalls. “I remember one day I was at the pool and came upon a bittern (a member of the heron family). When it became startled, it pointed its neck and head straight up and froze. That image stayed with me.” 

In addition to her origami, she also handcrafts cheerful textiles birds. During the pandemic Hebert taught herself how to sew and make patterns of birds using the model of a small crow statue. Just before sewing the colorful pieces together, she stuffs the bodies with shredded wool. Handmade feathers of the same fabric are then sewn onto the bird. Twigs from the hibiscus bush are used to make the beak, and the feet are shaped from wire. Her birds are named after friends: Winifred, Frida, Ian, Dorothy…

In yet another technique, Hebert sculpts birds from clay then, air dries them for a wood-like effect. Once they’ve dried, she sands them and finishes with acrylic paints. 

A self-taught artist, Hebert attended USL for art but soon felt she wasn’t getting the encouragement she needed as a female student in a field that was male-dominated at the time. Instead she pursued a dream of being an artist in Jackson Square and, at 20, moved to New Orleans. “I thought it would be the ultimate thing to do in Louisiana, painting and drawing somewhere with such historical significance,” explains Hebert. “I started with pet portraits because I realized pets were a billion-dollar industry at the time.” It was a profitable undertaking, but taxing. To achieve the flat bright colors in her portraits, reminiscent of the silk screens of Warhol and Peter Maxx, she painted four layers of acrylics.

Looking back, she says the 20 years in New Orleans confirmed for her that she had the talent to make it as an artist. 

After losing everything to Hurricane Katrina, Hebert and her husband Jean returned to St. Martinville. When a friend told her about NUNU Art and Culture Collective, the couple took a trip there to scope it out, which led to them moving to Arnaudville. “I needed to be back around creatives; I lost that when I left New Orleans. I felt like I’d lost my identity,” she confides. “The artists there are supportive, not competitive, which is important. It’s a great group with a sense of community, and that’s inspiring.”

The scenery on her drives between Grand Coteau and Arnaudville compelled Hebert to paint the rural landscapes of pastures, sugar cane fields, haystacks, cows – and magnificent clouds. Using water-based oils, she began painting on unusual wooden surfaces, carved by Arnaudville wood artist Larry Bourque.

During her first year in Arnaudville, she also became fascinated with origami. “I thought it was amazing that people were making things out of paper,” Hebert exclaims. “I bought a book on the subject and a geogami kit, and I started by making sundials and things you could put in the windows. It takes a lot of concentration and figuring out; it was frustrating at first, but amazing.”  

A few years into perfecting her folding skills, Hebert put her love of birds and murmurations to paper, folding just over 900 black swallows. She constructed 60 birds a week for 15 weeks, each was created with two steps of cutting and at least 25 folds. The project took nearly a year of preparation. “When I finished, the first knuckle of my left index finger was hurting,” she admits. Using poster putty, and with no preconceived layout, the birds were adhered to an area of a wall at NUNU, measuring 35×12 feet. The result is a mesmerizing flight of birds. 

As a cancer survivor, Hebert thinks no one should take themselves seriously, which is why she conveys humor in her work whenever she can. When a friend’s chicken – Brunhilde the Destroyer – became a muse, she created an entire show based on the hen. Painting in the styles of some of her favorite artists, she paid homage to the likes of Pablo Picasso, Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol. In one of her keepsakes of the collection, Van Gogh-like brushstrokes illustrate a chicken on the run, titled “Brunhilda on the Gogh.”

If it’s true that artists get to their best work by pivoting to new things, Hebert seems to be proving that theory. “I move on to projects,” says the jewelry maker, whose necklaces and bracelets integrate Indian glass with handcrafted fabrics beads. Using strips of Australian and batik fabrics, a knitting needle and a mixture of glues, Hebert carefully rolls the textiles into the desired shapes of beads. 

In other mediums, she’s revisiting painting on repurposed clothing, and she is currently working on a collaboration with David Morrow, who is creating computer-generated art with a photo of the sparrow murmuration, which will be shown on screen when complete.

Now that the exhibit is completed, Hebert hopes to find a permanent home for the origami swallows. With a price tag of $9,500, she envisions the display in a corporate setting or an art museum.

In the meantime, she looks for other skills to develop herself as an artist and is open to where the next fascination might lead. “I’m doing it because I love it and can’t help myself,” she says with a smile.