Leveeland Creations are home-made, hand-painted naive folk art by Lance "Varg" Vargas. Here you purchase his available art, leave him a message or just look around at his growing portfolio of art.

The Gambit The Michelle Bonfills Show

The art is mostly created using found wood and objects around New Orleans, Louisiana. Plywood, picture frames, machine parts and other salvaged items make up much of it. The wood comes from gutted houses around New Orleans and from the great work of The Green Project and Habitat Restore.

Inspiration comes from old ballads, trickster tales, area colloquialisms, "neo voodoo," flora and fauna, languages, figures and spirits. Some are just there to make a short, simple statement about what's important in life. Some are more diffuse and abstract in meaning. A certain phrase, a local character, a strange tale,

fleeting thought these are the subjects of his art.

Varg began creating art from salvaged wood shortly after Carnival 2007 and refinishing his hardwood floors in 2006. His admiration of how heart pine wood reacts to sanding, staining and finishing prompted his first few pieces and matured into his current work.

Varg can probably custom-make any piece you need. Including address numbers, which can be designed with the color scheme of your house if the paint is supplied.

“I have made a rule for myself that I will use restored and salvaged material in every piece I do. As a result of the flood, there is a ton of great wood with a lot of stories to tell sitting on the side of the road throughout New Orleans. I’m just trying to grab as much of it as I can and turn it into something somewhat cool and get a little more life out of it. There is a lot to be said for paint on wood. It looks down-homey and authentic, a little bit advertising, a little bit inspiration, a little bit art. I try and give it all a little something extra, some flavor."

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"More than anything, I despise waste. Particularly as it relates to organic matter. Trees are magnificent. They were here before we arrived and they'll be around after we are gone. I'm making an effort to save as much wood as possible. Creating art is fun too. But beyond communicating with folks, beyond rescuing flooded parts, beyond reveling in the ethereal aroma of heartpine that hasn't seen the light of day in 400 years, beyond all that I am trying to make a comment on waste."

Varg loves:

The Handsome Family, Gillian Welch, Cormac McCarthy, Gabrial Marquez, Trickster Tales, Watership Down, Johnny Cash, Rebirth Brass Band, Bob Dylan, Steve Earl, Townes Van Zandt, The Decemberists, The Rolling Stones, Bessie Smith, Nina Simone, Tom Waits, Cab Calloway, "City of God," "Fast, Cheap, and Out of Control," “The Forbidden Zone,"“Waking Life," “Barfly," “Once Upon A Time in the West," “Coal Miner's Daughter" “Dead Man," “Mystery Train,"“Winged Migration," “Baraka," “The Man Who Wasn't There," “The Black Hole," Nick Cave, Mogwai, Louis Armstrong, Neko Case, Arcade Fire...