Welcoming signs inviting you to get out
Dr. Bob earned his nickname after having to deliver his only son without help from an obstetrician. Bob Shaffer, his real name, is a Dumpster-diving self-taught folk artist who’s become unquestionably the most conspicuous artist in New Orleans. His “Be Nice or Leave” signs seem to be in every other gift shop and practically every dive bar, juke joint, neighborhood restaurant, and po’boy stand.
Born in 1952, Dr. Bob began his career in the arts as a woodcarver working in the French Quarter. He painted his first “Be Nice or Leave” sign simply to keep people passing by from bothering him while he sculpted. He’d first seen this phrase scribbled on a cardboard box inside a bar called Working Man’s Paradise. The other side of the box read, “Nothing in this world is worth getting shot or killed over.”
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Address 3027 Chartres Street, New Orleans, LA 70117, +1 504.945.2225, www.drbobart.net | Hours By appointment, call ahead| Tip Painter Simon Hardeveld’s bright signs with shadowed letters surrounded by stars, stripes, and polka dots can also be spotted all over New Orleans, from the Garden District’s Joey K’s restaurant to Mid-City’s Chickie Wah Wah. His “Shalom Y’all” and “Beware Dogs and Voodoo” have become collectible treasures. You can often find Simon working on his art in a shed on the property of Lily’s Antiques on Jackson (1028 Jackson Ave).
When people kept stealing, then buying, more of his hand-painted signs than his sculptures, Dr. Bob was nudged away from carvings to paintings. A friend convinced him to focus on signs and T-shirts with the “Be Nice or Leave” logo. Today, more than 2000 versions of the phrase are bought by collectors every year. His work has been shown in galleries across the country, even gracing the walls of the Smithsonian.
Dr. Bob works out of a studio on Chartres Street in the Bywater neighborhood, where he transforms found materials and discarded objects into art. After Hurricane Katrina, he was joined by Mike, a buddy since the seventh grade who lost his grocery business to the flood. The two make art together, with Mike often hammering old bottle caps along the frames for Dr. Bob’s signs. The studio was formerly a mule barn and has retained a wonderfully raggedy and open-air atmosphere. Finished pieces and works-in-progress are stacked everywhere. A sign hung high atop the drive-in entrance advises, “Buy now before the artist dies.”
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