It was while bedridden with polio that George Rodrigue (1944-2013) discovered painting. Unable to walk, and highly contagious with a disease feared by parents everywhere, he remained at home throughout much of the third grade with only his mother for company. His father, George, Sr., supported his family from the road while working as aContinue reading “Walk With Me to the Future”
Category Archives: Other Animals
Don’t Slow Me Down
In the spring of 2013 George Rodrigue and I drove our truck cross-country from New Orleans, Louisiana to Carmel, California, as we had twice annually for twenty years, finding adventure on alternate routes and detours along the way. We didn’t know that this would be our last road trip; however, we did travel with aContinue reading “Don’t Slow Me Down”
The Alligators Return
Following twenty years in a private collection, this week two special paintings by George Rodrigue hang for the first time ever in New Orleans. See Lacoste Lineup (1991) and Spooked by Bourré (1993) on view for a limited time at Rodrigue Studio in the French Quarter. The story behind these paintings is one of the mostContinue reading “The Alligators Return”
Swimming Upstream
This morning George joined me in the bedroom after painting all night. We stood at the window and watched the sunrise. “There’s only one owl,” I whispered. “Maybe they split up,” he replied. But we both knew better. -from The Other Side of the Painting We wanted to see the bears.Continue reading “Swimming Upstream”
Tee Teddie (Won’t You Be My Teddy Bear?)
At 4×3 feet, Tee Teddie is anything but tee. The painting, begun in 1995 and completed in 2013, first hung in Café Tee George, artist George Rodrigue’s original Lafayette restaurant, which was replaced by the Blue Dog Café after burning in 1997. Tee Teddie was the only painting to escape the flames, while interpretations ofContinue reading “Tee Teddie (Won’t You Be My Teddy Bear?)”
Who Will She Be Today?
George Rodrigue’s newest silkscreen, Who Will She Be Today?, is a rare style among his prints. Only a handful of his Blue Dog works on paper originate with paintings. Usually, as explained in the post “Silkscreens,” he creates the design on tracing paper or, more often, within his computer, printing an original image unrelated toContinue reading “Who Will She Be Today?”
Butterflies Are Free
When I asked George Rodrigue this week for the title of his newest silkscreen print, he said, “Did we have one called ‘Butterflies Are Free’?” Not only do we have one, I reminded him, (it was his first piece with butterflies, featured later in this post), but also he suggests that same title for everyContinue reading “Butterflies Are Free”
The Muse
For the past five or more years, a pair of great horned owls sat each morning at the edge of our pond-like pool in Carmel, California and watched the sun rise. I squinted at their silhouettes, side-by-side and sometimes touching, stronger as reflections in the water than the hazy outline of their bodies against theContinue reading “The Muse”
Spotlight on Sandra
Two years after opening The Rodrigue Gallery of New Orleans, George Rodrigue followed in 1991 with Galerie Blue Dog in Carmel, California.* That first summer, as he installed his paintings and established himself in the tiny seaside community, a southern gal walked in smiling and reminded him, “Don’t you remember me? We met years agoContinue reading “Spotlight on Sandra”
The Blue Cat
It may surprise you to know that we do not have a dog. In fact, George Rodrigue has not had a dog since Tiffany, an unwitting participant in the Blue Dog Series, died in 1980. He’s had several dogs over his lifetime, beginning with Lady and Trixie in 1950s New Iberia. However, it’s never beenContinue reading “The Blue Cat”
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”