Fifteen years ago today, George Rodrigue and I married beneath a Louisiana live oak, the same Evangeline-style tree he’s painted for years, in Rip Van Winkle Gardens at Jefferson Island, Louisiana. It was a stormy day, and yet the sun emerged just long enough, as we exchanged our vows. “It seems like yesterday,” said George’sContinue reading “Our Anniversary”
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The Mamou Riding Academy: Fact or Fiction
“One summer a German mule trader struggled to sell his last white mule. A farmer finally bought it for his daughter, and the daughter liked it so much that her friends each wanted one. In the end, the mule trader sold nine mules to nine fathers of nine little girls.” That’s the story of theContinue reading “The Mamou Riding Academy: Fact or Fiction”
All Hail King George
George Rodrigue makes a great King. I hear it every year as we attend the Washington D.C. Mardi Gras, where he ruled in 1994 and still commands regal respect. (pictured, It’s Good to be the King, 1994, acrylic on canvas) This royal interest started in his childhood, in the late 1940s. George’s first memory, inContinue reading “All Hail King George”
MUSE-ings from a Mardi Gras Float
If ever there was a reason for lasik…, I thought to myself as I struggled with my glasses, barely touching my nose over enormous feathered hot pink eyelashes and a mandatory mask, all negotiated around a plunger-like stocking cap and a bouffant Big Bird-yellow Fifi Mahony’s custom-designed wig. (George Rodrigue designed t-shirts as a giftContinue reading “MUSE-ings from a Mardi Gras Float”
Painting Like a Child… Again
“Creating art in a childlike manner means to be simple and direct, resulting in immediate imagery.” –George Rodrigue Since founding the George Rodrigue Foundation of the Arts (GRFA) in 2009, George Rodrigue has visited dozens of schools and thousands of children across Louisiana, Northwest Florida and Little Rock, Arkansas.* Through GRFA he fulfills his needContinue reading “Painting Like a Child… Again”
Four for Mardi Gras
It’s impossible to live in the Gulf South and ignore Mardi Gras. It spreads from Galveston to the Florida Panhandle, affecting our judgment, so that ‘normal’ becomes beads, wigs, costumes and masks. (pictured, Four for Mardi Gras, 2012, 24×38 inches, edition 190) In New Orleans we expect parade traffic most evenings and all weekends, shruggingContinue reading “Four for Mardi Gras”
Risky Business
“It is a dangerous business going out your front door.”* This morning I watched from my desk in Carmel Valley, California as a great-horned owl took a bath. It glanced at me, assessed the danger, and then continued, even as I eased open the glass door and stepped into the rain, camera ready. We allContinue reading “Risky Business”
Swamp Dogs: A Series on Metal
More than a year in the making, George Rodrigue’s Swamp Dogs combine print, photography and varnish on large sheets of metal, resulting in a unique perspective of the Louisiana landscape. Beyond materials, however, the series originates with two stories. Rodrigue, a Cajun artist for forty-five years, illustrates Louisiana lore including not only the loup-garou, butContinue reading “Swamp Dogs: A Series on Metal”
Farewell to Exhibitions; Welcome to Painting
George Rodrigue and I spent much of the past eighteen months on the road visiting museums and communities for exhibitions, lectures, and education events coordinated by the George Rodrigue Foundation of the Arts (GRFA) and the New Orleans Museum of Art, which organized the tour as part of its 100th birthday celebration. Locations included BatonContinue reading “Farewell to Exhibitions; Welcome to Painting”
Guilty
I wandered through college with a guilt complex. Like many naïve students, inspired by a voting voice and new knowledge, I embraced the world’s problems as my own, determined to improve things somehow, even as I failed in family relationships and winced at dateless Saturday nights. Looking back, it was a crazed mental time, whenContinue reading “Guilty”