Bayou Boogaloo Festival Organizers Help Revive Dead Oak Trees By Turning Them InTo Scultped Artwork

When Bayou Boogaloo starts this weekend will be a 14-foot- high sculpture of a carnival of India in the backdrop along Bayou St. John. Sculptor Marlin Miller, who carved a sculpture of a dead tree along the marshes to the festival last year, returned this year to complete this work.



In 2013, the artist Marlin Miller created a wooden sculpture depicting wildlife and musical instruments out of an oak tree 30 feet dead in Bayou St. John near Orleans Avenue. He finished just in time for Bayou Boogaloo.

But there was still something missing.

The oak 4 feet wide and 14 feet high are supposed to have an Indian carnival carved on one side of it. Rainy weather prevented him from finishing the project last year, so this year is back in the same oak tree for you a picture of Mardi Montana Indian Chief at the same Gras.

"I wanted to be careful to not violate any traditions or cultures anyway," Miller said, noting that he received the blessing of Montana before starting the project. Once completed, you can paint with airbrush on yellow and orange gold.

“The color will be very bright on it and you will be able to see that when you come this way by Orleans Avenue," he said.

His work is part of a campaign sponsored by Bayou Boogaloo, to restore the trees along the historic waterway Bayou St. John. Since Hurricane Katrina in 2005, has transformed trees killed by the storm and flooding in sculpture. Anyone traveling across USA 90 of Biloxi, Mississippi, has seen his work on increasing the neutral ground.

“When a large historic tree dies, this is just a way to give it a few more years," he said.

You can check out the work of Miller finished top this weekend when the Bayou Boogaloo starts. The festival will be held May 16 to 18. Here is the full schedule for the music festival.