Sculptor Armand Saiia Named ArtsNatchez’s Artist of the Month for June

Reception set for Saturday, June 13, in downtown Natchez, Mississippi
 

Armand Saiia, ArtsNatchez’s Artist of the Month for June, displays photographs of his sculptures at the gallery. (Click on image to enlarge.)

NATCHEZ, Miss. – Sculptor Armand Saiia says he’s been a “lone wolf” in the world of art, and it’s a status he holds with pride.

During the 1960s, when people were partying and many were protesting the Vietnam War, Saiia found peace in the arts. “My refuge was the museum, and I still exist in that space,” he says, adding that art springs from a sense of integrity.
 
“Art is the most honest thing a person can do,” he explains. “It’s like dancing naked in front of people -- all the time. I just feel that honesty is the best policy. We live in a time where things are not very honest.”
 
Saiia has been named ArtsNatchez Gallery’s Artist of the Month for June, and the public is invited to view his latest work at the gallery on Saturday, June 13, at 425 Main St. His reception is from 5 to 7 p.m. It is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served.
 
Saiia’s exhibition will include medium-sized and small sculptures, as well as paintings he has completed over the past eight months. He describes his paintings as a blend of realism and abstraction. Saiia signed the series "Fortunate Thomas," combining his given name, Fortunato, with the surname of his late friend Joan Thomas, who painted the backgrounds featured in the works.
 
“The work is collaborative. That’s one of the distinctive aspects of this show.”

Sculptor Armand Saiia, ArtsNatchez’s Artist of the Month for June, poses with his large sculpture “Subjugation” in front of the gallery. The mixed-media work features wood carved to resemble bone, forged metal, chains, and solar-powered lighting. (Click on image to enlarge.)

As with any good artist, each piece of Saiia’s work tells a story. For instance, one of his larger sculptures is designed with a log that resembles a large bone on one side and stacked metal and chains resembling anchors on the other. He calls it “Subjugation,” a work that reflects themes of suffering.

 
Discovering Art
 
Saiia, who is of Sicilian descent, grew up in Buffalo, New York. Although he has lived “all over the country,” he says, he absolutely loves his hometown. “I’m a proud Buffalonian,” he says.
 
It was in Buffalo that Saiia discovered his love for art.
 
Saiia attended McKinley High School in Buffalo, where he trained to become a commercial art director.
 
Saiia says he was not only a good student but also among the top students in his class. “I started doing sculpture out of a 2,000-pound log. As a kid, I used to make snow sculptures, igloos, and stuff. That was my calling. I fell in love with shapes, spaces, and forms.”

Sculptor Armand Saiia poses with his large bone-like sculpture “#2 Wing Section” at ArtsNatchez Gallery in downtown Natchez. (Click on image to enlarge)

While Saiia enjoys drawing and painting, he is first and foremost a sculptor. “I draw well, but up until eight months ago, I hadn’t painted since college.”

 
Saiia graduated from Buffalo State Teachers College, where he earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Sculpture.
 
Saiia credits much of his artistic development to time spent at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery. After winning a workshop scholarship around the age of 10, he became a familiar face at the museum and spent countless hours studying the works of abstract artists.
 
“The security guards got to know me. They let me hang out in the art museum unsupervised. From age of 10 until I went to college, I would hang out with the works of abstract artists.”
 
Discovering Natchez
 
Saiia moved to Natchez about two years ago after living in Baton Rouge.
 
“I was familiar with Natchez,” he says. “I love history, and Natchez is like the birthplace of everything in the South.”
 
Saiia found a home at a good price that provided adequate space for his studio and outdoor garden, where he grows fruits and vegetables. Canning vegetables is one of his favorite pastimes.
 
Saiia was particularly pleased to find that his home is only minutes from the Blues Highway. “Blues is my favorite thing,” he says. “It touches my soul and is very honest. I’m happy to be where I am, and I’m happy to be working. There’s so much to discover here.”
 
Saiia says he’s excited about the upcoming reception, where the public can see his creations. He views the show in part as an introduction of himself to the Natchez area.

Artist Armand Saiia with his paintings on display at ArtsNatchez Gallery. (Click on image to enlarge.)

A quick review of his collection shows multiple sculptures with chains, which he admits is a recurring element in his work because of what they represent.

Saiia also likes working with old, forged metal. One of his creations, titled "Jack the Humorist," incorporates the car jack from a Model T Ford mounted on a wheel hub and stone base. The piece also features a skull cast in plaster.
 
An overview of his work over the years may be summed up in the title of his popular series, “Steel, Stone and Bones.” As with the chains, he has used creative ways to sculpt wood into structures that look and feel like actual bones.
 
Saiia believes he has spent a lifetime creating art because it is what he was meant to do.
 
“I can’t do anything else,” he says. “I wanted to be a doctor but knew I’d never fit. I’d rather hold tight to my poetic license.”
 
The gallery is open daily at 10 a.m. For more information, call 601-442-0043.

Armand Saiia displays a photograph of his sculpture “Jack the Humorist,” which incorporates a Model T Ford car jack, wheel hub, stone base, and a plaster skull.

Chicago, hands off Hound Dog Taylor!

Top of the Morning column published in The Natchez Democrat (Wednesday, May 3, 2026, page 4A) 

(Click on image to enlarge.)

Top of the Morning
 
Chicago, hands off Hound Dog Taylor! 
 
By Brandon McCranie

Attention citizens, government officials, and tourists alike: The City of Natchez has been robbed, and nobody’s even noticed.

All the way up in Chicago, they’re celebrating and honoring something they have no claim to. They stole a dog — a Hound Dog, to be more specific.

Now, I’m not talking about the kind of hound dog with long, floppy ears. No sir, this is a very special kind of hound dog. What makes him special? All sorts of things. But here’s the problem: Chicago is running around, acting all high and mighty like they have some kind of claim to this music legend. He’s even an inductee into the Blues Hall of Fame.

I guess I can’t blame them. But what really makes Hound Dog Taylor special to me — and I mean really, really special — is the fact that he was born right here in little old Natchez. That’s right, a Natchez Native Son.

Hound Dog Taylor was born here in 1915… or maybe 1917. It depends on who you ask. He was known for trying to throw folks off his trail. Imagine that. A hound dog trying to keep folks off HIS trail for a change. He even told interviewers he was born in Lounder, Mississippi. Y’all, there ain’t no such town, city, village, or borough in Mississippi.
 
There’s a whole lot of unknowns when it comes to Mr. Taylor, but here are a few facts, just so you understand a little bit about the man and the incredible life he lived. He earned the name Hound Dog because his friends said he was “always on the hunt!” On the hunt for what? Why, the ladies, of course! He was a notorious ladies' man.

In fact, that’s why he left us. It’s always a woman, ain’t it? The story goes that he was romantically involved with a white girl, the news of which was not well received by a group of fellas who scampered around in white sheets and pointy hats. One night, those fellas put on their silly-looking outfits and went to Hound Dog’s house. They even put a big wooden cross in his front yard. I don’t believe they were planning to have a Bible study, as they set that big cross on fire.
 
I guess Hound Dog didn’t feel much like company that night because he slipped out his back door, hid in a ditch all night, decided he was done with Mississippi for good, and joined the Great Migration north.
 
When he got to Chicago, he realized he’d left his piano all the way back down south. Instead of going back to get it, he got himself a cheap guitar and a blown-out Sears amplifier. He turned the volume ALL the way up and started banging on that thing with a tempo and rhythm as loud and as fast as the train that carried him up to his new home. The people there heard him and started tapping their feet and clapping their hands.

Before you knew it, just about everyone in Chicago was dancing to the music of Theodore Roosevelt Taylor…the Hound Dog. And that’s the truth.

Ain’t that something? Chicago may have made the legend, but Natchez made the man. I think Natchez, and Mississippi as a whole, owe the man a long-overdue, restorative, karmic debt.
Along with Dr. Roscoe Barnes III and Visit Natchez, I’m leading the effort to have a Mississippi Blues Trail marker erected here in Natchez in Hound Dog’s honor. It’s the very least we can do, the way I see it. He deserves to be recognized and remembered as another reason there’s no place like Natchez, and also as a reminder of our city’s unique and sometimes indefensible past.

I hope you enjoyed learning just a little bit about Hound Dog Taylor. There’s way too much to put in a newspaper article. So, I’m writing a book. Coming soon: Six Finger Blues: The Almost True Story of Hound Dog Taylor by Brandon McCranie.
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BRANDON MCCRANIE is a Natchez resident.