Images of lively city endure.

Byline: Mark Baker The Register-Guard

It's her life's work.

But where it is - or what's happened to it - is unknown.

Ember Soberman, a 1992 graduate of South Eugene High School and a resident of New Orleans, was visiting family in Michigan when Hurricane Katrina hit 12 days ago, and she hasn't been able to go back since. She has no idea of the fate of four years worth of paintings in her apartment, or the others that were on display in two art galleries in the Big Easy.

But the images, mostly inspired by the city she loves, are alive and well in Eugene and Newberg, thanks to her parents. And you can buy them and help New Orleans rebuild.

Larry Soberman, Ember's father and the principal at Twin Oaks Elementary School in Eugene, created a Web site last year to "show off" his daughter's work. And he has all the images on a compact disc.

But it was her mother, Denise Marecki of Newberg, who came up with the idea of creating and selling greeting cards with those poignant scenes of New Orleans.

Marecki was watching a Red Cross telethon on television a week ago today, watching singers such as Faith Hill and New Orleans' native Aaron Neville belt out songs to raise money for the relief effort.

She thought about how lucky they were that they could use their talent to help the cause.

Then she thought, "Wait a minute. My daughter is talented, too. And it hit me."

Soberman and Marecki have raised about $1,000 so far, after Marecki had about 500 of the cards printed at a Eugene Staples store Monday. And they've got orders for more.

All proceeds will be donated to Habitat for Humanity of New Orleans.

"I appreciate the efforts my parents are putting out there," Ember Soberman, 31, said in a soft voice by telephone Thursday from her aunt's home in Boyne City, Mich. "Whatever positive things people can do is great. I think everybody needs to do something."

Devastated by what's happened to the city she's called home on and off for 11 years, Ember Soberman is angry. And frustrated. "I'd like to go home - just for a minute. Be there for some closure, too. It's just so overwhelming."

A week before Katrina hit, she had hopped on a Greyhound bus in a moment of spontaneity, headed for Michigan. She didn't take much with her and left most of her identification - her passport, Social Security card and other items - behind in her second-floor apartment in New Orleans' lower Garden District, a couple of blocks from the Mississippi River. She left the used El Camino she had just bought to haul art supplies. And, of course, she left her paintings.

The few friends she's been able to contact tell her they think her neighborhood is not flooded, but she has no idea. And she had no renter's insurance.

She had paintings on display at a gallery in the city's Ninth Ward, and some at a gallery in the business district next to the French Quarter. The Ninth Ward was devastated by flooding, she said. And she's seen images on TV of buildings on fire in the business district. She doesn't believe either gallery was insured against losses. Some of her paintings have been sold, but she hasn't collected the money yet, she said.

"I want to go home and see what I can see," she said. "But I know I can't go back there right now."

Ember Soberman plans to go stay with her grandparents in Detroit for a while. She would like to teach art classes to hurricane refugees, particularly for children, to help them cope. And to help herself cope, too.

"It's her life's work," Larry Soberman said, "so she's rightfully kind of sad and angered by the (federal government's) response to the cleanup efforts. It's like any catastrophe. She's just kind of moving through it."

Despite her situation, Ember Soberman knows she's one of "the fortunate ones." But she worries about friends she hasn't been able to reach. "I don't even know if they're alive," she said.

Thanks to her mother and her father, though, her artwork still is. "The images alone evoke all kinds of feelings in people," Denise Marecki said. And buying some of them will not only give people a chance to hold on to a part of New Orleans that no longer exists, but a chance to contribute to its rebirth, she said.

"And it gives (Ember) a chance to feel somewhat empowered that her art and her talent can help rebuild her community."

NEW ORLEANS ART

If you would like to see images of Ember Soberman's art, go online at schools.4j.lane.edu /~soberman/. If you would like to purchase a packet of four greeting cards for $10 with images of New Orleans she has painted, e-mail Larry Soberman at [e-mail] or Denise Marecki at [e-mail]. All proceeds will be donated to Habitat for Humanity of New Orleans.

CAPTION(S):

Ember Soberman says her art is inspired by New Orleans. Cards featuring her work are being sold to raise reconstruction funds. Larry Soberman Larry Soberman with his daughter, Ember, a resident of New Orleans.