Chase Mullen stands among his paintings in his first museum exhibit, 'Second Nature: The Artwork of Chase Mullen,' running through Sept. 22, at the Louisiana Art & Science Museum.
Chase Mullen channels ducks, raccoons and alligators to tell stories of his life's stages.
True, that wasn't the case in the earliest days of his earlier paintings of Louisiana's watery ecosystems. He was living in Qatar, where his wife had a teaching job.
A walk through Baton Rouge artist Chase Mullen's exhibit, 'Second Nature: Artwork by Chase Mullen,' at the Louisiana Art & Science Museum. This exhibit features Louisiana wildlife, flora and fauna that form narratives about Mullen's life, family and stages in life. Staff video by Robin Miller
Back then, images of egrets, great blue herons and La. 1 signs standing in swamp water filling Mullen's head were a reminder of home — and home for Mullen was south Louisiana, specifically Baton Rouge.
Those stories have since evolved. The Louisiana wildlife in Mullen's work now see the world through the world through his eyes, documenting stories of his life and family.
In 'The Nursery,' Chase Mullen tells the story of his growing family. His daughter, Audrey,' is represented by the duckling peeking from the stump knothole, while wife, Cheryl, watches protectively from above. Mullen is the swimming duck, waiting for his duckling to emerge outside for an adventure.
Admittedly, viewers probably won't detect this narrative playing out on Mullen's stark, white backgrounds in his exhibit, "Second Nature: Artwork by Chase Mullen," in the Louisiana Art & Science Museum's Soupçon Gallery. But they will see herons standing atop alligator snapping turtles, both harmoniously bound by a swarm of butterflies.
Sounds a little Disney-esque, right? Far from it. Mullen's work is more reminiscent of John James Audubon in its mix of realism, with a sense of magic added in to form his narratives.
In fact, he champions Audubon as his inspiration in this show, which also marks a personal milestone for Mullen. His work has fans and collectors, and if viewers aren't familiar with him as an artist, they'll surely know his work from the local restaurants that display it. It also can be found in The Foyer, which has been selling his paintings and prints since 2009.
A detail shot of the duckling in Chase Mullen's painting, 'The Nursery.' The painting is featured in 'Second Nature: Artwork by Chase Mullen' at the Louisiana Art & Science Museum.
Those were the days when Mullen's paintings where more translucent in nature. His latest pieces are bold in color, and his newest are found in this show — his first museum exhibition.
That's the milestone, something for which Mullen has spent the past year creating acrylic paintings on wood and mixed media sculptures. And now he in the center of the gallery, still in awe of this achievement.
The magical paintings in Chase Mullen's exhibit, "Second Nature: Artwork by Chase Mullen," not only depict native Louisiana wildlife but serve…
He looks more the part of Louisiana outdoorsman than studio artist. Actually, he's both. He and his wife, along with their 3-year-old daughter Audrey and 1-year-old son James, are always venturing outdoors.
After a stint in China, the family has settled in Baton Rouge's Southdowns neighborhood, where Mullen maintains a full-time studio.
Great blue herons and alligator snapping turtles exist in harmony in 'Wheels,' featured in the exhibit, 'Second Nature: Artwork by Chase Mullen.' The show runs through Sept. 22, at the Louisiana Art & Science Museum.
In between, his work has been featured in solo gallery shows on the west coast, but, as Mullen often says, "There's no place like home."
But getting back home wasn't easy. The Mullens were living in Shenzhen, China, where taught in an international school, when the COVID pandemic hit.
"We moved to China, and we were there for almost three years. In January and February of 2020, it was Chinese New Year, and my wife had two weeks off," he said. "We had this vacation, and we decided to visit family in Louisiana, then go to Hawaii for a week."
After that, it would be back to China, where would resume her teaching job. Or so they thought.
Chase Mullen admires a young student's rendition of his work in The Seed, the Louisiana Art & Science Museum's newest hands-on gallery.
"While we're in Hawaii, I get a news alert through the school that there's something going on in Wuhan," Mullen said. "So then I checked the Johns Hopkins tracker, and there were 600 cases of COVID in this little province. The next day, we're still in Hawaii, that number had risen to 1,400."
Two days later, that number had increased to 3,000.
"So, we're like, 'Well, what do we do?'" Mullen said. "We're supposed to be on a plane to go back to this country, and the day before we have be back, the school where my wife works tells her, 'We don't know what's going on. Stay where you are. Nobody's coming back. Nobody's coming in. Nobody's going out.'"
The Mullens returned to Louisiana, which instituted its own COVID lockdown in March 2020.
'Bug Watching' is a viewer favorite in the Louisiana Art & Science Museum's exhibit, 'Second Nature: Artwork by Chase Mullen.' It's also Mullen's favorite, having been inspired by his backyard bug-watching adventures with his daughter.
"Things were in total chaos here, but the school in China said they had things under control, so everyone had to return or their contracts would be canceled," Mullen said.
The Mullens returned, and China's COVID cases began to rise again. They were scheduled to return to Louisiana in May 2020 but had to stay in the country until December of that year.
"That's when we moved back here, and though it doesn't have as much to do with my work, it was a weird bookend to that chapter of our lives," Mullen said.
In June 2020, when the couple was still in China, Mullen's wife learned she was pregnant.
A detail shot of Chase Mullen's painting, 'Bug Watching.'
"We planned to move in with my in-laws," Mullen said.
But, again, they had to wait until December, and the waiting game became a race against time, because the Mullens wanted to have their baby in the United States.
It's the type of storyline that makes a good movie, and the Mullens' story had the nick-of-time perfect ending. This also is where his artwork evolved from Louisiana scenes to Louisiana scenes laced in family narratives.
Mullen's interaction with his newborn daughter changed everything. The narrative comes even more intricate with their evening backyard walks among the bugs, earthworms and botanicals.
The Mississippi River serves as a backdrop for Chase Mullen's mixed media sculpture, 'Full Bloom,' in his exhibit, 'Second Nature: Artwork by Chase Mullen,' now at the Louisiana Art & Science Museum.
Their stories play out in the paintings in his museum exhibit.
"My daughter had a mobile over her crib, and it's like this five-spindle mobile," Mullen said. "And it has this cloth, pink flower that spins over the mobile, so that's literally why that flower has come out of there."
He's referencing the painting, "Nursery," in the show, where a duckling peeks out from a knothole in a stump. Mama duck stands watch from the stop of the stump while Daddy duck swims in the swamp water below, encouraging the baby duck to venture out.
"My in-laws live downstairs," Mullen said, pointing to the fish swimming below the water's surface. "So, I put them here."
Chase Mullen's painting, 'Second Nature,' is featured in his show, 'Second Nature: Artwork by Chase Mullen,' at the Louisiana Art & Science Museum.
He walks over to the painting he's titled, "Bug Watching," featuring a baby raccoon balancing atop its parent's shoulder while reaching for a butterfly.
"Since having kids, I see everything as a metaphor now," Mullen said. "Every experience I have with them, I can translate it into a painting so easily, and it doesn't feel like work anymore."
The raccoon painting is probably the perfect example of Mullen's family narratives.
"People go birdwatching all the time, but my daughter and I go bug watching," he said. "We'll go outside, and she loves digging around. We're looking at the yard, and there's all the wolf spiders coming out, and their webs look like glitter, and we came across a female full of babies on her back, and my daughter was so fascinated."
And Mullen has transferred his daughter's fascination to the baby raccoon in the painting, whose world has opened up with the mere sight of butterflies fluttering around the swamp stump on which they're perched.
"I don't know if I've cultivated this or if it's genetic nature, but she's not afraid of these bugs at all," Mullen said. "So, like these raccoons, this is something we do. We go bug watching."
Chase Mullen's painting, 'Spring,' is featured in his exhibit, 'Second Nature: Artwork by Chase Mullen,' at the Louisiana Art & Science Museum.
But Mullen's adventures aren't limited to his own children. He has provided the museum with line drawings of his paintings, which have been duplicated and placed at drawing tables in both the activity area outside the Soupçon Gallery and inside the museum's hands-on gallery, The Seed.
It's at these stations where kids can gather, choose the Mullen drawing that most inspires them and use crayons to to create their own colorful Louisiana narratives.
Mullen sifts through finished work left behind by young visitors. Some of the pieces are neat, others more abstract, while purple and pink color schemes in some create enchanted worlds.
"I love all of these," Mullen said. "I love how the kids really get into the paintings, and I love to see what they come up with. That's what it's all about."
"Second Nature: Artwork by Chase Mullen" runs through Sept. 22 at the Louisiana Art & Science Museum, 100 S. River Road. Hours are 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Wednesday through Friday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday and 1-5 p.m. Sunday. Admission is $15 for adults and $12 for children ages 3-12 and seniors age 65 and older. For more information, call (225) 344-5272 or visit lasm.org.