As part of the Carnival Museum’s grand reopening, the Museum is proud to showcase the art of Colleen Terrell Comer. A Mobile native, Comer is a graduate of Auburn University and Columbia University. Her work is exhibited locally, nationally, and internationally. Comer has many connections to Mobile’s greatest living tradition. As is the case with most locals, she grew up experiencing the many facets that make up Mardi Gras in Mobile. As an adult, she became a member of mystic societies. It is through her art and career that Comer has contributed to Carnival, and in multiple capacities. For a number of years, she designed floats and costumes for the Maids of Mirth, one of Mobile’s two oldest women’s parading societies. She has painted special commissions from mystic societies of Carnival subjects, including an iconic emblem painting for the Order of Myths. Most of the works featured in this work were created as part of new series focused on Carnival in Mobile. These paintings and sculptures are shown for the first time through this exhibit.

Bon Temps or Good Times is inspired by a book of the same name. Published in 2017, the publication features the essays of Eleanor Inge Baker and photographs by Megan and Jeff Haller. Colleen Comer, who is friends of all three collaborators of Bon Temps, executed the paintings comprising this exhibit based on the Hallers’ photographs. The exhibit features pertinent pages from the 2017 book and prints from the photographs from the same paired with Comer’s work. The book and the paintings examine the royal or court and the street or parades sides of Carnival in Mobile. Comer’s nuanced, and festive look, at multiple facets of Mobile’s greatest living tradition is art inspired by art! Additionally, Bon Temps via the Brush of Colleen T. Comer represents the first time the Mobile Carnival Museum has displayed a complete show of an active artist’s work.