A Tulane professor visiting the New Orleans gallery with her class this week asked me about George’s connection to voodoo. Although I’m sure she intended nothing of the sort, her question reminded me of the only negative comment we received in response to the 2008 Rodrigue exhibition at the New Orleans Museum of Art. AContinue reading “Spirits in the Trees”
Monthly Archives:
Doctor on the Bayou
There was a time, other than The Waltons and Little House on the Prairie, that doctors made house calls. A time before waiting rooms and diagnostic centers and ten minute speed-treating, when doctors traveled to homes in the middle of the night, held their patient’s hand, and worried alongside panicked relatives. There was also aContinue reading “Doctor on the Bayou”
Defining Success (Finding Fulfillment)
“If you help others, you will find the happiness you want. This is the secret they don’t tell you at school.” Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche How do we end up in our personal (and public) situations? How do children with big problems, those born into poverty, ignorance, and crime, find real happiness inside a box ofContinue reading “Defining Success (Finding Fulfillment)”
A Passionless Style?
We took a short trip to New York this week as we met with publishers and celebrated the launch of Deb Shriver’s elegant tribute to New Orleans, Stealing Magnolias. With only a few hours to explore the city, I found myself once again with my museum pal Emer*, this time at the Morgan Library. FarContinue reading “A Passionless Style?”
Artist Friends: A Pilgrimage
“… a sweep of red carnelian-colored hills lying at the foot of the mountains came into view; they curved like two arms about a depression in the plain; and in that depression was Santa Fe, at last!”* This month we crossed the country for the second time this year, unable to resist the American WestContinue reading “Artist Friends: A Pilgrimage”
A Big Dog in Texas
“This is where we lose the mountains,” George Rodrigue observed about sixty miles west of Amarillo. We’re crossing Texas again, the return trip of a journey begun in June. Unlike the drive west through Houston and Fort Stockton, we’re traveling the northern route, passing some of our favorite sites including Graffiti (1974), ten buried cadillacsContinue reading “A Big Dog in Texas”
Cloud Illusions
I watched the sunrise this morning over New Mexico from the window of our adobe hotel room in downtown Santa Fe. The storms skirted us all week, and the clouds enhance the orange light as it stretches from behind the fugacious masses, so unlike the clouds in a Rodrigue painting. I’m reminded instead of theContinue reading “Cloud Illusions”
The Collectible Book
George Rodrigue and I spent the past few days in Las Vegas, Nevada. We trekked to and through the City Center, wanting to see the much-touted series of structures firsthand. Although the architecture is over the top and the occasional art piece of interest, ironically it was a bookstore that occupied our afternoon. We talkContinue reading “The Collectible Book”
The Cajun Bride of Oak Alley
By the mid-1970s George Rodrigue spent his days scouting for subjects and his nights painting the Cajun culture. He concentrated on area traditions, such as The Aioli Dinner and The Traiteur (Cajun faith healer), famous locations such as Broussard’s Barber Shop and The Ragin’ Cajun Antiques, and legendary figures such as Jolie Blonde and Longfellow’sContinue reading “The Cajun Bride of Oak Alley”