Until now, it was 35 years ago that George Rodrigue last exhibited in Santa Fe, New Mexico, when his good friend, Rosalea Murphy, hosted an exhibition of his paintings in the apartment above her famous restaurant, The Pink Adobe. George spoke often of the unique camaraderie he enjoyed with artists such as Rosalea, her daughterContinue reading “Rodrigue in Santa Fe, Continued”
Category Archives: Santa Fe
Walk With Me to the Future
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”
Louisiana Lawyers Go West
Turquoise Hill with its ancient turquoise mine is an enchanting place —spiritual, timeless, mysterious, and breathtaking in its beauty. George and I visited many times over the years, beginning in the early 1990s. We were guests of history, nature, and the mine’s incomparable owner and steward, George’s dear friend and now my husband, Douglas Magnus.Continue reading “Louisiana Lawyers Go West”
Sharing George: A Video
The Life & Legacy Tour began because I felt compelled to help others experience George Rodrigue in a more personal way. After eight months, the tour is in demand more than ever, with no end in sight! And perhaps that’s exactly as it should be. Want to know what it’s like? Here’s a video from Dr.Continue reading “Sharing George: A Video”
Rodrigue Jewelry
George first created jewelry in the 1970s, hand-forming designs in clay from his images of Oak Trees and Jolie Blonde, which he reinterpreted as solid gold pendants. Later he made for himself one-of-a-kind Mardi Gras coins featuring elements from his paintings, also in gold, and embellished with precious stones. In the 1980s George met DouglasContinue reading “Rodrigue Jewelry”
Shidoni: A Friendly Greeting
I returned recently, for the first time in five years, to Shidoni, a place where George worked regularly over three decades. Located in the lush Tesuque Valley, an oasis in the desert near Santa Fe, New Mexico, the foundry was George’s choice for some thirty years for transforming his clay sculptures into bronzes —whether three-dimensionalContinue reading “Shidoni: A Friendly Greeting”
I am Not the Artist.
Over the years countless people approached George Rodrigue with ideas for paintings. They didn’t understand that George was original. He was authentic. “They all think they’re the artist,” he would say, shaking his head over the umpteenth person to “have a great idea,” insisting that he paint the Blue Dog with St. Louis Cathedral orContinue reading “I am Not the Artist.”
Rodrigue Comes Home
Those of you who follow this blog know that over the past six years (goodness…..six years….) and more than 300 essays, I focus on text, with quotes from George, and a careful complement of photographs and paintings. However, after spending a whirlwind week in Louisiana, I’m ready to post quickly and then get on withContinue reading “Rodrigue Comes Home”
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”
Rodrigue Collaborates
When it comes to painting, George Rodrigue is a loner. In recent months, he embraces full time the isolated setting of his Carmel Valley studio. The limited interruptions and lack of social commitments on this quiet California hill settle the artist into a near-obsessed dedication to his canvas and ideas. Ironically, however, it’s Louisiana thatContinue reading “Rodrigue Collaborates”
America, Unexpected
Oftentimes I wince at the question, Where are you from?. Unless the person asking lives somewhere between Houston and Atlanta, they probably associate Florida with Disney World and Miami Beach— nice places, but not the Emerald Coast of my childhood. I mumble to anyone who’ll listen outside of the Gulf South that I’m sort ofContinue reading “America, Unexpected”
The Silent West
“This cloud looks like a crawfish…” …whispered artist George Rodrigue from the back door of our desert hideaway, speaking the first words from either of us in hours. Within this southern Utah escape we study the sharp edge of mountains against the bluest blue sky at day, their shadowed outline at dusk, and at night,Continue reading “The Silent West”
The American Indian in Louisiana
As George Rodrigue and I explored ancient Indian mounds in northeast Louisiana, the sun in my eyes and warm, wind-blown hair in my face, I accidentally turned to an old page in my notebook covered with scribbles from an earlier adventure. Unaware of my mistake, I wrote, Each ridge 4-6 ft high when built, 50Continue reading “The American Indian in Louisiana”
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”
Rodrigue vs. O’Keeffe: Choosing Magnus and Murphy Over the Great Modernist Painter
It’s a snowy day in Santa Fe at last. George Rodrigue and I made the most of this past week’s clear weather, however, spending a day exploring an ancient turquoise mine owned by our friend Doug Magnus, a jeweler and artist in the area. …And another day within the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum. Once again, asContinue reading “Rodrigue vs. O’Keeffe: Choosing Magnus and Murphy Over the Great Modernist Painter”
Santa Claus: Paintings and Sculptures Inspired by the Season
In 1979 George Rodrigue painted his four-year old son André with Santa Claus. As with most of his Cajun paintings, he manipulated a photograph to suit his needs, in this case cutting the figures out of the staged snapshot and placing them outside. André posed with Santa not beneath an oak tree, but at AcadianaContinue reading “Santa Claus: Paintings and Sculptures Inspired by the Season”
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”
Artist Friends: A Pilgrimage
“… a sweep of red carnelian-colored hills lying at the foot of the mountains came into view; they curved like two arms about a depression in the plain; and in that depression was Santa Fe, at last!”* This month we crossed the country for the second time this year, unable to resist the American WestContinue reading “Artist Friends: A Pilgrimage”
Cloud Illusions
I watched the sunrise this morning over New Mexico from the window of our adobe hotel room in downtown Santa Fe. The storms skirted us all week, and the clouds enhance the orange light as it stretches from behind the fugacious masses, so unlike the clouds in a Rodrigue painting. I’m reminded instead of theContinue reading “Cloud Illusions”
America the Beautiful (Crossing New Mexico and Arizona)
“All men were made by the Great Spirit Chief. They are all brothers.” Chief Joseph It was in a college class called ‘Religion and Social Issues’ that I first read Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee (1970, Dee Brown), a book that sunk my sheltered self into a depression I had not known since readingContinue reading “America the Beautiful (Crossing New Mexico and Arizona)”
The Land of Enchantment
Ever since losing our mother, Mignon, my sister and I take a week in the spring just for us. We should have done it years ago, with her, but now instead we travel together with her diaries and her memory, painting our fingernails purple and normalizing our eccentricities, making them near trendy, because crazy seemsContinue reading “The Land of Enchantment”
Rosalea Murphy, the Pink Adobe, and Paintings of Evergreen Lake
“She hates women.” That’s the first thing George Rodrigue told me about Rosalea Murphy. He met her thirty years ago in Santa Fe, New Mexico at a gallery show of his Cajun paintings. They became close friends, and through her he met a slew of artists, actors, and musicians, a number of which he remainsContinue reading “Rosalea Murphy, the Pink Adobe, and Paintings of Evergreen Lake”