Jean de France, duc de Berry commissioned the Belles Heures, an elaborate calendar and religious volume, in 1405. Created by the German Limbourg brothers, Herman, Paul, and Jean over five years in Paris, the illuminated manuscript is a mere 9×6 inches, with many paintings no bigger than a postage stamp. My friend Emer and IContinue reading “Miniatures: Manuscripts, Landscapes, Blue Dogs and Blogs”
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Rabbits and Chickens In (and Out) of Rodrigue Paintings
George Rodrigue’s sense of play spills over from his life into his art. Even in his Cajun paintings, which many consider to be his ‘serious work,’ he plays jokes on the public, entertaining himself and his audience with absurd subject matter, scale, and titles. The truth, however, is that when it comes to the actualContinue reading “Rabbits and Chickens In (and Out) of Rodrigue Paintings”
Catholic High, Brother Edward, and the Art Scholarship
George Rodrigue, known as ‘Big Rod’ to his teenage peers, graduated from Catholic High School in New Iberia, Louisiana in 1962, along with thirty-two classmates. They have an annual reunion in someone’s backyard (BYObeer), women not permitted. This is a group of guys that remembers a time when “if you could drive, you could drink,”Continue reading “Catholic High, Brother Edward, and the Art Scholarship”
The Client
Unlike most artists at his level, George Rodrigue operates (since 1998) without an agent. There’s no middleman and no discounted arrangements to galleries, decorators, or corporate art buyers. In an extension of his early days of selling on the road from the trunk of his car, he sells from his own galleries, his own business,Continue reading “The Client”
The Saga of the Acadians
Between 1985 and 1989, George Rodrigue painted the Saga of the Acadians, a series of fifteen paintings chronicling the Acadian journey from France to Nova Scotia in the 17th century, from Nova Scotia to Louisiana during the Grand Dérangement of 1755, and finally the first official return visit from Southwest Louisiana to Grand Pré inContinue reading “The Saga of the Acadians”
Flowers (Eyes, Swirls, and Hearts)
Anyone who knows George Rodrigue describes him as ‘manly.’ He has a deep voice and a large John Wayne-type rib cage; he wears alligator boots and drives a truck; he never misses a football game, and it pains him to attend the ballet or symphony; his favorite movies are The Searchers and High Noon, andContinue reading “Flowers (Eyes, Swirls, and Hearts)”
The Ides of March and a Mystical Experience
I was born on the Ides of March in 1967. For the two years prior to my birth, my father was stationed in Vietnam, and my mother lived in the Philippines where he visited her on leave. They returned to the United States on a rough crossing of the QE2 just weeks before I wasContinue reading “The Ides of March and a Mystical Experience”
If Not Painting, Then Cars…
We had dated about a year when George Rodrigue and I had our first fight. I had just visited him in Lafayette, Louisiana, where we cruised along the Atchafalaya Basin levees one moonlit night in his prized possession – a black Mercedes SL Convertible hard-top. A month later, as we drove down a Carmel, CaliforniaContinue reading “If Not Painting, Then Cars…”
Blue Dog Today: An Interview with George Rodrigue
Every few weeks I devote a blog to the Blue Dog Story, from its loup-garou beginning in 1984, and on to Tiffany, Absolut and Xerox, Blue Dog Man, Sculptures, Red Dog, and Silkscreens. I last wrote about the Abstract Paintings of 2001-2003, and I’m a bit lost as to how to move forward. To assessContinue reading “Blue Dog Today: An Interview with George Rodrigue”
The Name ‘Rodrigue’ with Pronunciation and a Bit of History
The name ‘Rodrigue’ is a common one in Cajun country. However, outside the southern part of his home state, George Rodrigue endures miss-pronunciations and miss-spellings on a regular basis. Most of the time, people say or spell the name ‘Rodriguez.’ A close second is ‘Rodrique’ (with a ‘q’ in place of the ‘g’). And barContinue reading “The Name ‘Rodrigue’ with Pronunciation and a Bit of History”