Local artists paints murals across South Mississippi

Expressing yourself through art can be a therapeutic act. For one local artist, who is painting murals all across South Mississippi, it’s that and much more.

Take a walk down Fishbone Alley in downtown Gulfport and you’ll find yourself immersed in artwork. Amidst the bright colors and expressions, you’ll find a nearly 8-foot-tall mural by local artist Lucina L’Enfant, who began painting at age ten thanks to a special loved one. “My Mimi was watching Bob Ross and we decided to do some landscapes and we ended up doing quite a few swamp scenes. We just enjoyed Bob Ross because he’s a nature person.”

Her love of art has never wavered, despite life taking her a different direction. “I’m a registered nurse and I’m a veteran. I was in the Navy for six years. Of course, I was a corpsman so I just continued with my medical career. I started doing murals about five years ago at Ruth’s Roots in Bay St. Louis, that was my first one. It was actually a contest. I ended up getting third place and then the people’s choice award.”

The rest is history. Since then, L’Enfant has painted murals across South Mississippi. As a full time nurse, L’Enfant has seen the worst of COVID-19 over the last two years. In that time, art has become a sense of relief and joy. “The hospitals are very stressful right now. Anybody who walks through those doors deserves an award- dietary, EVS, everyone.  Artwork for me is my escape. With murals, I’m outdoors usually.”

Her favorite thing to paint is koi fish because of its message of growth and resilience. “It represents perseverance. The koi, it kept swimming upstream and up the waterfall and so the spirits watched them. They kept trying and trying and failing and then finally one year, one finally jumped over and they turned it into a golden dragon.”