INSPIR ED BY NOM A : ER IC BLU E

You’re from New Orleans. Did you For me it was as simple as being able to
ever come to NOMA as a child? come here a few times a month and look
I did. I grew up in a single parent at a work of art. You can look at a work
home—there were four of us—and my of art, and think that maybe the artist
mom would drop us off here, go run her had no idea where he was going with this
errands and do whatever she needed to when he started it, but he knew he was
do that day, and come back and pick us going somewhere. I think looking at art
up later. There wasn’t that much trouble taught me to approach life that way.
you could get into back then, so I spent
quite a number of Saturday afternoons What kind of art are you drawn to?
here. For a while, I was a huge contemporary
art fan. I lived in New York for a while
Do you have any specific memories and took refuge in contemporary art
P H OTO G R A P H Y BY RO M A N A LO K H IN

from visiting? Is there a certain because there were pieces that spoke
artist you liked? more to me. Because I could see pieces
Not anyone specific. NOMA was a place of myself in the art, and I think that
to come and kind of reset, and I do this people feel at home when they can see
to this day. When I have really choppy themselves in art. And that doesn’t
days, I’ll come here in the middle of necessarily mean a black guy seeing a
the day, and my staff will know that if black guy in a work of art. For the better
New Orleans native Eric Blue is a
they can’t find me, I’m probably here, part of my adult life I just felt more
managing director of RLMcCall,
or sitting out there [gestures to City comfortable with contemporary art
a private equity firm, and is also a
Park]. I think as a kid, if your norm is a because it allowed me to take refuge and
founding principal of Cardinal Points
little bit challenging, often times what see that there’s order in chaos.
Holdings, LLC, an equity sponsor
you need more than anything are just
of ClearCompass Digital Group.
opportunities to reset. So you can come Considering what I imagine to be a
Previously, Blue served as an M&A
here, and the world gets as big as the high-stress field like yours, it must
and capital markets attorney with two
pieces on the wall. And you spend hours be nice to come here and think about
international law firms, as an associate
and hours and hours in the galleries, something completely different. In
at Drum Capital Management, and
and when you do re-enter your personal a way, it helps you with your own
prior to attending law school, as an
reality, the walls don’t seem quite as business, it seems.
Industrials corporate finance and
confined. [Visiting NOMA] has served Yes, it does. It also gives you perspective.
mergers and acquisitions investment
that purpose for me, and honestly, it’s I think folks look at finance and think of
banker with an international
probably where I learned how to dream. it as the antithesis of art, but there’s tons
investment bank. Additionally, he
of creativity in the field, and as an adult
serves as member of the board of
I tell my mentee all the time that I’ve this allows me to kind of be reminded
directors of the Sewerage and Water
got absolutely no walls. I don’t believe of that. And also it humbles you, right?
Board of New Orleans and is a member
in them. If there are things I realize I If I have a really good day, it’s because
of its pension committee.
cannot do, often it leads me to believe I’ve convinced someone to sell me
Blue graduated with a BS in
that I just haven’t figured out how to something, and that’s great, but... Now I
Finance from Xavier University of
do it, not that it can’t be done. And you own it, so now what? You could say, “Eric,
Louisiana, a JD from The University of
learn that in places like NOMA. And I’m giving you a billion dollars and I’ll
Texas School of Law and is a Level II
particularly as kids in urban America— give you a year to produce that [points
Candidate in the CFA Program.
regardless of color—I think if you are to Skylar Fein’s Black Flag for Georges
Blue, who was recently elected
lower to middle class or poor in America, Bataille]” or anything like that, and I
to NOMA’s board of trustees, spoke
you need opportunities where you are couldn’t do it. So it keeps you grounded.
with Arts Quarterly’s editor on a walk
reminded that the only limits that exist It humbles you.
through NOMA’s galleries.
are the ones you affirm.

4 Arts Quarterly New Orleans Museum of Art