First time hitting the road in search of hidden treasure and MANTIQUES.

The New Orleans Artist Joseph Jilbert..aka: jojo

Well I went through school to be a plumber and decided crawling under a house just wasn't my thing right now...go figure right? I decided to try and do something I enjoy..a little travel..meeting new interesting people and buying manly geared antiques to put into my new small store in the little town of Van Buren, Arkansas (population: not very many). The first trip took me to New Orleans and Baton Rouge, LA. home of Mardi Gras and The LSU Tigers. New Orleans was a very interesting place with so many shops and stores it was tough to get real direction...it was a lot of just driving and stopping when I would see a spot or traffic would allow..While driving i couldn't help but notice a massive mermaid welded together in a yard behind one of these antique shops..3 u turns later i had arrived at the feet of the 15 ft. tall mermaid welded and pieced together by Joseph Jilbert (photo above) Joseph or "jojo" who after spending a half hour with I am comfortable in calling jojo. Jojo happen to be there and was nice enough to give me a tour of his pieces..they ranged from a football player leaping to make a great catch.."or did he catch it? wild right?" as jojo put it...to an alien princess on her way back to the cosmos, this piece had a little animation to it to show what happens to the lady figure at sub zero temps (use your imagination). The man was one of those guys that was very welcoming and eager to tell his stories to interested parties, scarred from wrist to elbow from welding slag.. He envisioned it more as he was "turning into one of his pieces"... I can tell you all of his art is amazing..I have never seen anything like it and will be shocked if I ever do..The antique stores in "Nawlins" were great and filled with amazing things, as you can imagine the town itself as old as it is would be..The only downside was most antiquers there knew what kind of jewels they sat on and priced accordingly, I escaped with a few gems but it wasn't the truck load I had envisioned..Well this is all the time I have for now, hope your head isn't hurting from the read..this being my first blog I hope to get it more dialed in. Also note: I was a plumber not English major so I can fix a sink but my proof read looks like my original copy...