NEW ORLEANS — Blaine Kern Sr.’s work as a master float builder and artist was seen by millions of people each year at Carnival. It’s what earned Kern, who died Thursday at age 93, the nickname “Mr. Mardi Gras.”
It turns out, Kern was also “Mr. Manresa,” attending annual religious retreats at the Manresa House of Retreats in Convent, La., where his talents were also on display.
For more than 90 years, men have attended weekend retreats at Manresa, praying and reflecting in silence in retreat sessions overseen by Jesuit priests and brothers.
According to the Clarion Herald, Kern made more than 30 retreats there, beginning in 1974. He and some of his closest friends and business associates would make the 40-mile trek upriver from New Orleans for their annual yuletide retreat, usually the weekend before Christmas.
A Manresa tradition involves keeping a chronological attendance book which contains the names of every retreatant. Like he did with so many other things, Kern turned his retreat group’s pages into works of art.
As you’d expect, some of his drawings in the retreat books (shown in a Clarion Herald-produced video) have Mardi Gras themes, such as the 1981 edition which shows floats from Rex, Bacchus, Endymion and Alla parading past an enormous crowd at Gallier Hall. Another Mardi Gras-themed one, from 1994, features some of his best-known parade icons, such as King Kong, Zulu characters, a Krewe of Alla Maharajah and Endymion king.
Another drawing reflects the mermaid and Neptune figures Kern and his team designed for the 1984 World’s Fair. There are also Manresa “Saints” who look a lot like players from the NFL football team. Other drawings have Christmas or religious messages or just simply messages of love and peace.
The list of his fellow retreatants is a who’s who of New Orleans as well, with names from Carnival like Owen “Pip” Brennan Jr. (the founding Bacchus captain) and Ed Muniz, the Endymion founder and captain, joining some familiar names from politics such as former Lt. Gov. Jimmy Fitzmorris, Superdome visionary Dave Dixon, former Jefferson Parish assessor Lawrence Chehardy and former Jefferson Parish President Joe Yenni. Other members of Kern’s retreat groups over the years included members of the Landrieu, Connick and O’Keefe families.
Kern, who was flashy, outspoken and larger than life (which was also reflected in his Mardi Gras parade superfloats), may not be the first person you think would attend a silent retreat. But he was also very religious, especially towards the end of his life. His drawings reflect his spirituality and also his God-given artistic ability.
“They were a quiet gift of his rare talent, just another chance to make people feel good, as though they were just a little closer to God,” Finney said.
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