“And they sat there and they marveled And they knew they could not tell Whether it were angels, or the bright stars a singing”** I was surprised by the large and heartfelt response to the recent post “The Ghost of Christmas Past,” a story I hesitated sharing. Obviously there is something about this season thatContinue reading “The Greatest Gift”
Category Archives: Musings
The Art Contest
George Rodrigue entered two art contests in his life and failed at both. By ‘failed,’ I’m not talking about the fact that he lost, but more significant that he was disqualified or learned a hard lesson about cheating. “Nothing in life is fair,” my mother used to say. And maybe she was right. But inContinue reading “The Art Contest”
The Ghost of Christmas Past
I try and, honestly, fail to imagine 1950s New Iberia, Louisiana. I’ve stared at this photograph for hours, a six-year old George Rodrigue dressed as a cowboy on Christmas morning, an only child surrounded by symbols of the time: a Radio Flyer red wagon; promotional Coca-Cola Santa Clauses (in multiples because his dad traded themContinue reading “The Ghost of Christmas Past”
The Family Portrait
Although George Rodrigue admitted to himself only recently that he is an effective portrait artist, he has painted both real and imaginary figures for forty years, accepting commissions for family portraits since the early 1970s. For the family portrait he feels pressured to please everyone from Great Aunt Marie to Baby Hebert with regards toContinue reading “The Family Portrait”
The Bronzes
George Rodrigue holds a deep appreciation for classicism in the visual arts. In a way, this embrace of time-honored techniques and subjects translates to a parallel within his own career, as even today he talks about his bronzes of the mid-1970s with reverence, recalling the process as though he worked alongside Donatello himself, paying tributeContinue reading “The Bronzes”