Blue Dog at the Movies

Since childhood, George Rodrigue has loved the movies.  It’s the reason, along with Saints and LSU football, that his studio doubles as a theatre, and why most nights he paints to the backdrop of Turner Classic Movies.  He returns to his favorites, The Searchers and Lonesome Dove, repeatedly.  And he spent his teenage years paintingContinue reading “Blue Dog at the Movies”

Blue Dog, The Book

“To find her you must lose her.  The Blue Dog knows the way.” –Blue Dog, 1994 In March of 1992 journalist Bridget O’Brian interviewed George Rodrigue for an article, front page, center column, in The Wall Street Journal. Although George had no control over the content, O’Brian allowed him one special request.  Without hesitating, heContinue reading “Blue Dog, The Book”

A Cajun in Carmel

Blue Dog artist George Rodrigue finds inspiration on the Monterey Peninsula- It was twenty-two years ago that artist George Rodrigue (b. 1944) opened his gallery in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California.  One of only two locations* in the country, the artist-owned Rodrigue Studio operates the same way today as it did years ago.  Despite Rodrigue’s increasing fame, heContinue reading “A Cajun in Carmel”

Dog in a Box

In yoga, I spent years within our bedroom practicing tree pose, standing on one leg, arms stretching skyward, until I balanced with ease.  Yet at my first attempt outside, at the edge of our patio in Carmel Valley, California, I fell.  Breaking my own rule, I donned my glasses, focusing on a distant tree, andContinue reading “Dog in a Box”

Hiding From the Blues

Recently I challenged George Rodrigue:  Pretend I’m a stranger and answer some questions. “Do you ever get the Blues?” “No, I really don’t, at least not on my own,” he said.  “But I do catch the Blues from others.” “Like your wife?” I asked.  But I already knew the answer. (pictured, The Red Cover-Up, 2010, acrylicContinue reading “Hiding From the Blues”

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”

Blue Dog: The Ghost of Tiffany, 1990-1992

In 1989 artist George Rodrigue, an investor, and that investor’s agent-brother opened The Rodrigue Gallery of New Orleans just behind St. Louis Cathedral in the French Quarter. In those first months the gallery exhibited George’s Cajun paintings, mostly large genre works featuring his friends and family as models. However, as I mentioned in a previousContinue reading “Blue Dog: The Ghost of Tiffany, 1990-1992”

Two Publishing Stories: The Cajuns and Blue Dog

The Cajuns of George Rodrigue By 1975 George Rodrigue was painting forty canvases a year, all scenes of Cajun folk-life stemming from his first painting with people, Aioli Dinner (1971), and incorporating the distinctive oak trees from his landscapes as well. Although he had a gallery in Lafayette, Louisiana, he was selling most of hisContinue reading “Two Publishing Stories: The Cajuns and Blue Dog”

Blue Dog: In the Beginning, 1984-1989

In 1980 a Baton Rouge investment group approached George Rodrigue for help in creating a lasting Louisiana memento, a book of Louisiana ghost stories to be sold at the 1984 World’s Fair in New Orleans. Author Chris Segura embellished forty rather gruesome tales, and Rodrigue researched regional myths and legends for appropriate imagery, resulting inContinue reading “Blue Dog: In the Beginning, 1984-1989”