Camille Vizena, a 2020 McNeese printmaking and graphic design graduate, is one of three artists in a nine-month Residency at the Museum program. She was working diligently Thursday on a multi-layer woodcut reduction in the old Charleston Hotel at the corner of Ryan and Pujo streets. The piece will be a portrait of her friend, Peyton Boozer, a harm reduction coordinator at Southwest Louisiana Area Health Education Center.

With her time in the program, Vizena is creating portraits of people that she feels are making the community a better place, like Boozer, although their efforts may not be in the public eye.

Imperial Calcasieu Museum’s Residency at the Museum program serves as a creative incubator space for artists where they are afforded time, space, and monetary resources to develop their artistic endeavors. The other two artists currently in the program with Vizena are Chuck Morgue and Robbie Austin.

Vizena said she doesn’t mind the “fishbowl” environment of working downtown where the public can walk by and watch her work.

“People stop by and I enjoy talking to them,” she said.