Ocrafolk Rising From the Ashes
Over 900 people voted online for their favorite of nine entries in the poster contest sponsored by Ocracoke Alive.
Natalie finished "Phoenix Rising" just before the deadline. "I was working until the last minute," she said. "I painted until my fingers hurt."
The artists were encouraged to submit an artist's statement with their poster artwork. Because she was painting down to the wire, Natalie didn't get her artist's statement on the Ocracoke Alive poster contest page. But she did post a statement to Facebook, and sent it to the Current to share:
"I almost immediately knew that I had to paint a Phoenix for this submission. To say that our community has had a rough 9 months would be an understatement. We have shared some really dark moments and some really bright ones since last season. With things starting to feel a little more normal here (even though the world around us seems to be on fire), a Phoenix rising from water seemed to be the most concise image to describe the people of Ocracoke for an annual event we will not see till next season. If I had to experience watching my whole life wash away in minutes, I am eternally grateful it was here, with this community. The people of Ocracoke are stunningly resilient and brave."
Natalie is from St. Martin's Parish, just south of Lafayette, Louisiana. Like everyone who washes up on Ocracoke, she has a story about how she found the sandbar. In 2009, she heard from a friend who met someone who worked summers on the island that Dajio Restaurant needed an experienced bartender.
"I thought about it overnight, then said yes. I sold everything I owned in a garage sale, which gave me gas money to get to Augusta," she said. "Then I waited until my last paycheck was direct-deposited so I'd have the gas money to get to Ocracoke."
Natalie had never even heard of Ocracoke and came "on a whim."
"One selling point for me was all the pirate history," she said.
After six seasons on the island, she took a job in New Orleans and spent four years away from Ocracoke, always planning to return. Then came the opportunity to apprentice at a tattoo shop in Washington, NC, and then another tattooing job in Frisco.
She moved back to Ocracoke last July, "just in time to get settled and watch it all float away," she said.
She stayed all winter to help friends with hurricane recovery, even though off-island work was beckoning. "I feel like there's an unwritten contract here after something like Dorian – you don't leave until everyone's okay," she said.
Natalie's artistic exploration began at age 5, when her mom encouraged her to finger paint. "I was an only child and my mom kept me occupied by putting a roll of paper across the floor and giving me paint. At about age 7 or 8, I got paintbrushes."
Art was something she loved, but didn't actively pursue until she was living on Ocracoke, by then in her late 20's. She dabbled with projects at restaurants where she worked such as decorating the specials board, then branched out to making signs for island businesses, and painting faces for Halloween and the WOVV Women's Arm Wrestling Tournament.
Natalie says she "officially became an un-closeted artist" while working at the Back Porch Restaurant. She was talking to her boss, Daphne Bennink, and co-worker Lisa Landrum as the topic of the Ocrafolk Festival Art Auction came up. Lisa was on the auction committee and seeking art donations. Natalie mentioned that back in Louisiana she had a cool, old wooden door that she wanted to paint.
"Lisa said 'If I get you a door, can you paint it?' and she brought me an old door from a Coast Guard house, and I just stared and stared at it for a long time before I started painting," she said. "The festival was only four days away!"
Natalie didn't know that she was contributing to a live auction until she got there. "I was incredibly nervous," she said. "The door was the last of 32 items in the live auction, and when the sea of paddles went up, I just started crying."
Now the painted door hangs in the restroom alcove at the Back Porch.
"Being an artist is such a vulnerable position to be in," Natalie said. "I kept it close to my heart, not sharing with people, but being on Ocracoke gave me the support to express myself in art."
She credits Kitty Mitchell (Ocracoke School's retired art teacher) and Katy Mitchell (Kitty's daughter and owner of the Magic Bean coffee shop) as her "biggest nudges." Their encouragement is important to her.
This summer Natalie is serving coffee at the Magic Bean and slinging drinks at Howard's Pub. She'd like to be more vigilant about taking time for her art, but says she needs to work all the shifts she can to recover financially from the past nine months. When she can, she plans to try portrait painting and continue tattooing (a future Ocracoke business?), but mostly her art is organic and just happens when it happens.
"I paint when I have to get it out of my system," she said.
