Those who know the art scene at Loyola will be on the fourth floor of the Diboll Gallery at the Monroe Library on Thursday, Nov. 6th, at 6p.m.

Viewers may be astonished and struck by the sublime intensely abstract photography of Kay Duvernet.

“Everything is not what it seems…what appears to be a carefully composed or painted piece of abstract art is…close-up photography of something quite common,” wrote Critic Joy Jones of the Biloxi Sun Herald.

“When I’m taking photographs, each one I see seems really exhilarating,” Duvernet said.

The artist has been intensely involved in photography since the early 1980’s.

Duvernet uses a 35 mm camera with a 135 mm lens to photograph, standing close and carefully framing her subject.

Duvernet’s photographs have traveled the country, winning awards since 1979, including a Louisiana’s Division of the Visual Art’s Fellowship.

Her works have hung on the walls of various renowned galleries, from Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University to the Pensacola Museum of Art.

They are found nationally in public and private collections.

“You look at it and say, ‘Somebody had to paint that’,” said Julian Brunt, Executive Director of the Dusti Bonge Foundation in Biloxi, Mississippi, where a collection of Duvernet’s photographs have been represented since Oct. 2002.

“Kay will see a picture where no one else will see one…it turns out to be stunningly beautiful. She might stop in front of a wall or an old car, in front of a building or a piece of sidewalk and just be staring at something, thinking about it, looking at it.”

“She would be very methodical about it, kind of slow of contemplative,” said Leslie Parr, associate professor of communications at Loyola and friend of the artist.

Once a longtime resident of New Orleans, the artist has lived in Georgia and Arkansas. Duvernet is self-taught. “Kay loves New Orleans, loves to photograph it,” Parr said, “She is very minimalist in her approach.”

Duvernet’s favorite subject is rusted railroad tracks by bodies of water.

In her artist’s statement, Duvernet writes, “No image is constructed arranged or manipulated; each has evolved as a result of natural, elemental forces, sometimes channeled unconsciously through the human mind.”

“We used to go on long walks together, take our cameras and just roam through New Orleans. People would walk by and say to me, ‘What’s she doing, what’s she taking a picture of?’ They can’t see anything there to take a picture of,” said Parr.

An extensive amount of Duvernet’s work is waiting for funds to be printed.

“Kay is just a special person. She is an artist,” Parr said.