Mardi Gras Silkscreens: A History

George Rodrigue created his first Blue Dog Mardi Gras silkscreen in 1992. He designed the simple, strong image by hand, drawing the outlines for each color on a separate sheet of tracing paper to make the six-color print, and emphasizing the traditional Mardi Gras colors of purple (justice), gold (power), and green (faith). The printContinue reading “Mardi Gras Silkscreens: A History”

Good, Good, Good Friends (Three New Orleans Chefs)

Artists and chefs share a natural bond. Creating unique art or food, they separate themselves from the pack, or from the yardstick as George would say, recalling a professor who explained, “Art is like a yardstick (held horizontally), with the Mona Lisa at one end and black paint on a black canvas at the other.Continue reading “Good, Good, Good Friends (Three New Orleans Chefs)”

Counting on Art (and Painting by Numbers)

George Rodrigue first picked up a paintbrush in 1953 when his mother brought him the latest American craze, paint by number sets, to ease his boredom as he lie sick in bed with polio. By the early Fifties the masses saw paint by number as affordable, do-it-yourself art. But even as a young boy, GeorgeContinue reading “Counting on Art (and Painting by Numbers)”

Mardi Gras Colors on Paper

Since his earliest Cajun paintings, George Rodrigue painted the parades, costumes, and colors of Mardi Gras. Over the next six weeks (leading up to March 8th, Mardi Gras Day), I’ll explore that history within this blog, including his Cajun posters for small town Louisiana carnival traditions; twenty years of Mardi Gras Blue Dog silkscreens; photographsContinue reading “Mardi Gras Colors on Paper”

A Winter Adventure: Trapped in Gallup, Freed by a Meteor’s Crater

Not since I was a child at Ramstein Air Force Base in Germany* have I seen snow like we saw this week. Along with our friends Barbara and Tony Ricciardi of Carmel, California (who you might remember from our recent brush with death, “Swamp Women”), we traveled a short two hundred miles in a longContinue reading “A Winter Adventure: Trapped in Gallup, Freed by a Meteor’s Crater”