Portrait of a Creole Queen: Leah Chase

Portrait of Leah Chase with quote. “You worry too much about what goes into your mouth and not enough about what comes out of it.” (2019, Acrylic on panel, 16” x 20”, by Lydia Makepeace)

“You worry too much about what goes into your mouth and not enough about what comes out of it.” - Leah Chase

In an eerie coincidence I finished this portrait of Leah Chase right before learning of her death on June 1, 2019. Leah Chase, a New Orleans chef, is known not only as the “Queen of Creole” but also for her civil rights activism and love of art.

Favorite Leah Chase anecdote: That time in 2008 she reprimanded President Barack Obama (then a US senator) for putting hot sauce in her gumbo.

Definitely check out the Times-Picayune Leah Chase article to learn a smidgen more about this incredible woman.

 
Paint + SketchLydia MakepeaceLeah Chase, Affirm Black Women Portrait Series, Acrylic PaintingComment