Probably better known to the general public as Kirk Mc Coll from “As the World Turns” or the despicable lawyer, Michael Baldwin, on “The Young and the Restless”, Christian Jules Le Blanc is also a native of Louisiana and quite an accomplished artist. Self-taught, originally Le Blanc’s illustrations started as gifts for his young nephews. His artwork soon dovetailed nicely with his acting career when he received a commission for the premier theatrical production of Miami’s Coconut Grove Theater’s 40th anniversary season. The producers requested that he transmogrify the human characters of the play, Ladies In Retirement, into the animal characters Le Blanc had been developing for children’s books. The drawings follow the course of the old Victorian whodunit, incorporating the clues of the murder mystery along the way.

Christian followed up his artistic success with Ladies In Retirement, by entering his first art show. He was awarded “second overall” in the prestigious Culver City Art Festival in Los Angeles.

Among the proud owners of Le Blanc’s works are Julie Harris, Eileen Brennan, Charles Nelson Reilly, June Havoc, Melody Thomas Scott, and Grace Zabriskie.

His pieces: Home, Making Market, 5o’clock at the 9 o’clock Cannon, La Chanson du Coq Noir, and La Premier Adieu are taken from his own children’s novel in progress, Tales of the Louisiana Moon. These works combine an authentic early New Orleans environment with high color fantasy that periodically is peopled by Le Blanc’s fellow Y&R castmembers.

Le Blanc’s 1999 Orpheus Mardi Gras Poster, was inspired by Le Blanc’s reintroduction to Mardi Gras in 1998 as an Orpheus celebrity monarch. Commissioned by the parade’s founders, Harry Connick, Soney Borey and Anne Rice, that year’s parade theme was “World Premiers at the Old French Opera House”.

Christian’s children’s artwork has previously been shown at the Antoine Gallery in Washington D.C. and at the Jeanne Bragg Gallery of Southern Art in New Orleans.

Le Blanc’s current show, “WET”, marks a departure from his previous exhibitions. This series began as a one-off exploration of light and texture, but, with the encouragement of fellow artists, Mattea Perrotta, Alex Beard and especially Kevin Gillentine, eventually morphed into the intricate nature studies that make up this collection.