Gore's Art: Made in the Ghetto

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Russell Gore

While walking through the French Market in New Orleans during my recent trip, hoping for inspiration for our photo assignment, I spotted Russell Gore. His bright green shirt and the gold medallion around his neck are what drew my eye initially. He was sitting at a table laid out with his artwork and was finishing some additional pieces while waiting for customers. He calls his business Gore's Art: Made in the Ghetto and he designs and makes jewelry. He uses colorful strips of plastic, molded together, to create bright and funky pins. I liked them so much I bought two of them.

Russell is a passionate golfer who plays whenever he has time to get out on the course. His green shirt is significant in that he always wears it on the Sunday of The Masters if Tiger is in the hunt. I don't know if he'll be wearing it today or not! He hopes to see Tiger competing for the green jacket again but confesses that he thinks it may be a while before that happens again.

When I asked if I could take his picture, I told him that the shirt and the medallion were what had originally caught my eye. He said, "There's a story about the medallion." I asked him to tell me and he suggested I take the picture first. I should have taken the hint but I insisted that he tell me. That medallion you see in the photo is made from his wife's gold. She died in his arms during Hurricane Katrina. After her death, he gathered it all up and turned it into that medallion. He finished by saying "You can take my money and all the rest that I have and I'll go on. If you take my medallion, I'm coming after you." Somehow, I had trouble focusing the camera to take his picture after that.

As I took my leave, he gave me a reproduction of a newspaper article that had been written about him. When I finally got a chance to read it on the plane home, I discovered he was even more remarkable than I had first thought. Credit goes to Dre Dorse, the author of that article, for the following tidbits:

• He was born and raised in the St. Thomas housing development in New Orleans, otherwise known as the projects.
• He studied commercial art and photography in college and worked as a graphic artist before setting out to start his own business.
• He spends at least two days a week back at the St. Thomas projects working with kids to try and keep them away from drugs and other destructive behaviors

Russell truly is a remarkable, humble, thoughtful man and it was a real pleasure to share a few minutes of his time. His art is cool too!