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”
Category Archives: Texas
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.”
The Petro Brothers
“Ya’ here to look or to buy?…” …barked Bud Petro from the porch of George Rodrigue’s Jefferson Street gallery.From a rocking chair, he watched the Esso station he owned with his brother Norman, while monitoring and, according to George, “scaring away” potential Rodrigue collectors. “I couldn’t tell him to leave,” laughed George.“He was part ofContinue reading “The Petro Brothers”
Tom “Slim” Gray
“I wish I’d met you 20 years ago,” …said a tearful George Rodrigue on the phone last week with Tom “Slim” Gray of Alvin, Texas. The two became friends in Houston during the summer of 2012. They exchanged stories every Monday for nearly three months, as they sat for hours during chemotherapy. “I just wantedContinue reading “Tom “Slim” Gray”
Shiny Happy Blue Dog
“We mortals are but shadows and dust.” –Proximo, Gladiator Recently, while shopping for skinny jeans and day-glo tees with my sister and cousin, I time-warped to the 1980s when flashy jewelry, exaggerated shoulders, and acrylic fingernails prevailed. For a while, subtle feminine style seemed lost forever. George Rodrigue has never been subtle, in his ideas,Continue reading “Shiny Happy Blue Dog”
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 Road
“What I like about the West,” said artist George Rodrigue last week as we navigated Houston rush hour traffic, “is that when you’re there, you’re by yourself.” I posted this comment on facebook, and nearly everyone mistook the meaning, assuming George referenced central California, our home for awhile, maybe as long as two years, as weContinue reading “The Road”
I’m a Writer!
“All I see is that you’re writing with a pen. Yay!!!” Author Patty Friedmann cheered the hand-written word after seeing the photo below. It was December 2010, and I scribbled on the pages of a purse-size artsy notebook, purchased annually in multiples from the Morgan Library museum shop. George Rodrigue photographed me as I satContinue reading “I’m a Writer!”
Cow Dogs
Every once in a while a new silkscreen provokes a collective gasp— from our staff, from collectors, even from George Rodrigue himself, as though surprised by his own artwork. It first happened in 1991 with Starry, Starry Eyes, then in 1995 with Party Animal (a Mardi Gras tribute), and again in 2002 with over-sized motorcycleContinue reading “Cow Dogs”
Courage for Our Friends
After ten weeks in Houston, George Rodrigue and I returned today to New Orleans for a bittersweet homecoming, as we change our undesired summer’s routine, while leaving behind the people who shared our experience, the people we grew to love. It’s weird, I said to George a few weeks into our summer, it’s not likeContinue reading “Courage for Our Friends”
Lucky Dog
Yesterday morning I sat in the window of a Houston, Texas café, George Rodrigue’s sandwich order in hand, awaiting the counter change from breakfast to lunch. An Ignatius J. Reilly nearby spoke of high water and broken computers into what I first thought was a hand’s free phone but turned out to be air. “DamnContinue reading “Lucky Dog”
A Star-spangled Blue Dog (from Houston)
Happy 4th of July! It’s an odd one, this middle of the week celebration, but perhaps that awkward timing renews enthusiasm, as folks have big plans, including barbeques and neighborhood parties despite the hottest summer on record. We spied decorations in unexpected places, and for the first time ever received gifts and cards as weContinue reading “A Star-spangled Blue Dog (from Houston)”
Match Race
“The straight sprints raced in heats or in match races where the two riders would balance for long seconds on their machines for the advantage of making the other rider take the lead and then the slow circling and the final plunge into the driving purity of speed.” –Ernest Hemingway* Because life intended it thisContinue reading “Match Race”
Happy Father’s Day, George!
I’ve written before about brothers André and Jacques Rodrigue. George painted his boys many times, and the paintings, including Kiss Me I’m Cajun with André and Paint Me Back Into Your Life with Jacques, are classics among his oeuvre. (For a look at those iconic works, along with a collection of family photographs, see theContinue reading “Happy Father’s Day, George!”
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”
Inspired by Louisiana and Scale (New Paintings)
George Rodrigue’s newest paintings, his most important collection in years coming out of New Orleans, are huge, most 4×6 feet or larger. Normally he paints in his studio in Carmel Valley, California, with long days at his easel and, aside from the occasional houseguest, few interruptions. This year for the first time in more thanContinue reading “Inspired by Louisiana and Scale (New Paintings)”
Looking for Summer Shade
Update 7/20/2012: Another hot summer, this one spent unexpectedly in Houston, Texas, finds us missing our annual cross country drive once again. Unlike last year’s Louisiana exhibitions, however, this year we look forward to Blue Dogs in Texas, opening August 10th at the Amarillo Museum of Art, continuing until October 14, 2012. Contact the museumContinue reading “Looking for Summer Shade”
Hank Williams or Moon Mullican: A Blogging Dilemma
“I love how Louisiana artists yell out food names when they run out of lyrics.” -Elizabeth McClanahan, Senior at Loyola University, majoring in Music Industry Studies I intended this Jazz Fest post for weeks, focused on Hank Williams. George Rodrigue and I trekked through rural Alabama last month, the Hank Williams Trail, with stops inContinue reading “Hank Williams or Moon Mullican: A Blogging Dilemma”
Happy Birthday, Tennessee
“They told me to take a streetcar named Desire, and transfer to one called Cemeteries, and ride six blocks and get off at – Elysian Fields!” –Blanche DuBois, T.W. I cannot remember a time that I existed unaware of Tennessee Williams. And yet, the truth is that I discovered him like a déjà vu onlyContinue reading “Happy Birthday, Tennessee”
Museums and Critics, an Early History
“I’m a survivor.” George Rodrigue, 2011 In 1969 the Art Center of Southwest Louisiana held George Rodrigue’s first solo museum exhibition. Located in Lafayette at the University of Southwest Louisiana, the museum, also known as the Pink Palace, existed within a Mississippi River-style plantation, surrounded by huge columns and designed by architect A. Hays Town.Continue reading “Museums and Critics, an Early History”
Meet Tiffany, the Original Blue Dog
It was an accident that a terrier/spaniel mix named Tiffany found herself involved with an artist’s legacy years after her death. The Blue Dog, in truth, has little connection to the Rodrigue family pet. Instead, its roots lie in a Cajun story, the loup-garou, a scary legend about a werewolf-type dog that lurks in cemeteriesContinue reading “Meet Tiffany, the Original Blue Dog”
Counting on Art (and Painting by Numbers)
George Rodrigue first picked up a paintbrush in 1953 when his mother brought him the latest American craze, paint by number sets, to ease his boredom as he lie sick in bed with polio. By the early Fifties the masses saw paint by number as affordable, do-it-yourself art. But even as a young boy, GeorgeContinue reading “Counting on Art (and Painting by Numbers)”
New York Art in West Texas
I could spend the rest of my life traveling and writing about the West. That’s what I thought to myself as I sat with George Rodrigue in a café in Marfa, Texas and watched the barbershop across the street. The barber, visible past a single strand of colored lights and his barber’s pole, shaved hisContinue reading “New York Art in West Texas”
A Big Dog in Texas
“This is where we lose the mountains,” George Rodrigue observed about sixty miles west of Amarillo. We’re crossing Texas again, the return trip of a journey begun in June. Unlike the drive west through Houston and Fort Stockton, we’re traveling the northern route, passing some of our favorite sites including Graffiti (1974), ten buried cadillacsContinue reading “A Big Dog in Texas”
Crossing West Texas (and the Moo-Cow Blues)
“You just can’t live in Texas unless you’ve got a lot of soul.” – Waylon Jennings I believe the hype: Texas is bigger and better than anyplace else. As we drive I-10 and listen to ‘Willie’s Place’ on Sirius Radio, I enjoy the long stretches of flat land and occasional hills, the seemingly abandoned towns,Continue reading “Crossing West Texas (and the Moo-Cow Blues)”
The Collector
During the summer of 2005, George Rodrigue and I joined his collectors Chris and Don Sanders in Europe for the Venice Biennale and Art Basel. Although we attended in the past, this was our first visit with the ‘in-crowd,’ and our group consisted of major gallery owners and big time art collectors, certainly well beyondContinue reading “The Collector”