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Absolute Blue. George Rodrigue is a very successful artist and one of the most vivid characters of the modern American Art. His works are famous all around the world, they are present in the private Art collections of politicians (Clinton, Bush, Reagan), artists, actors (Paul Newman, Whoopi Goldberg) and other celebrities, his prints and poster are the worlds most popular and collected and his images are the symbols of such companies, as Xerox and Young & Rubicam. George Rodrigue George Rodrigue was born in 1944 in New Iberia, Louisiana, the state of Bayous, swamps and Cajuns.
George was the only child of George Rodrigue and Marie Rodrigue. In his early childhood George Rodrigue was not different from any other boy in Louisiana, at the daytime running across the country, and in the evening listening to the local folk stories, closely bound to the unique and enigmatic country of Louisiana. George Rodrigues happy life of an ordinary boy finished in the year 1952, at the age of eight, when he got seriously ill with polio and was confined to bed for a year. Staying alone and still most of the time, Rodrigue was submerged in his own thoughts and dreams which were flowing out of his head in a flood of watercolor and crayon pictures.
In his third grade George Rodrigue was consciously aware that he wanted to become an artist and his parents supported and encouraged him in this plans. Formal education in art began in 1954 - 55 with art classes in school, and in 1956 - 58 with private Art studies with Mrs. Keen in New Iberia. In 1959 he enrolled at Art Instruction School and took an art course by mail from a correspondence school based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. After school Rodrigue attended University of Southwest Louisiana in Lafayette, and later the Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles, where in addition to the fundamentals of drawing, he studied abstract painting and advertising design. He experimented with various techniques, styles, media and forms.
He did figure studies, charcoal studies, quasi-naturalistic landscapes, pen-and-ink drawings, oils; he painted people as well as non-representational works. These numerous shifts from one for to another led George Rodrigue to invention of his own unique style. He called it his own "personal breakthroughs - in both life and way of painting. " (Rodrigue, Blue Dog Man) In 1967 he returned to New Iberia after his fathers death. He returned to figurative painting and his Cajun roots and established a studio in Lafayette, Louisiana. In the same year Rodrigue married his first wife, Veronica Hidalgo, from marriage with whom he has two sons: Andre and Jacques The Cajun ethnic background has deeply influenced the Art of George Rodrigue. Rodrigue, who is himself of Cajun ancestry, has long considered his purpose as an artist to be to offer an interpretation of Louisiana as he knew it.
He has translated his desire to produce images about his Cajun culture into paintings that reflect the history of his people. The Cajuns, French Canadians from Acadia, who were expelled from Nova Scotia and settled in Louisiana, for centuries traditionally lived in close communities, preserving their own culture, traditions and the unique form of the French language. In Cajun communities many generations existed in close connection and young people know and remembered their ancestors. The works of George Rodrigue portray still forms that reflect eternal movement of time.
He often portrays the old oaks, covered with Spanish moss, that have seen many generations of Cajuns, the decrepit cabins that remember better times and Bayous of South Louisiana, that keep their secrets. Rodrigues friend Cajun Paul Prudhomme said: "No other artist has captured the emotional image of my childhood memories better than George Rodrigue. His paintings are the heart and soul of my homeland in Acadiana. " The anniversary silk screens not only celebrate the occasions but also full of lament for the passed youth. The artists favorite blue color is essential; it emphasizes the melancholy of his works. In 1970 Rodrigue had shown 200 landscapes at the exhibition in the Baton Rouge Museum at the Old State Capitol building: Some of the paintings were 8 feet, some little, but all black oak trees, and all different, all designed different I turned to the Sunday paper It said, Artist paints dreary monotonous oak trees. ' And that was the good part.
The rest was crap, ' terrible. ' Well, ... in about four weeks everything sold because of all the press. 1 One of the most recurrent motifs in the pictures of George Rodrigue is a blue dog. In 1984 Rodrigue was invited to make paintings for a book of Cajun ghost stories. Rodrigue was drawing a picture of the Loup-Garou, the Cajun legendary werewolf-dog, with the story of which his mother used to scare him into behaving himself as a young boy.
Rodrigue was trying to find the right form for a legend of his childhood, and he recalled his studio dog Tiffany. For many years, while Rodrigue painted his atmospheric bayou landscapes and highly regarded portraits, Tiffany, the beloved pet, sat patiently by his easel waiting for a moment's attention. In 1980, at age twelve, Tiffany died, leaving a void in Rodrigue's life. Rodrigue re-made the image of Tiffany and drew the blue Loup-Garou with red eyes. In this image the blue color not only underlines the haunting image of the Loup-Garou, but also pays tribute to his pet companion Tiffany, reflects Rodrigues sadness and blues over her death. This picture was beloved not only by the audience, but also by the artist himself and George Rodrigue has been drawing The Blue Dog for many years, juxtaposing it to many objects and people.
I put the Blue Dog as commenting on life today... in other words, here she is sitting there looking at life... and its me reflecting on where I am or where we are as a 1 Top dog. Upon his recent move to New Orleans, blue dog artist George Rodrigue looks back on his career.
And he has a few things to say to his critics. By Doug Mac Cash, Art critic. (The Times Picayune, Sunday, May 23, 2004). society and so in that way it became bigger than a Cajun legend or whatever it was before and its actually me... reflecting on a situation or mankind or whatever it is... 2 In later images Rodrigue changed the eyes of The Blue Dog from red to yellow, to make it look friendlier, but after many years The Blue Dog with red eyes returned. This happened in 2005, after hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans. Rodrigue said: New Orleans has been home to my gallery and studio for sixteen years; it is where the blue dog was born...
Wendy and I join thousands of New Orleans residents in our pledge to go HOME, to re-build our city, and to pay tribute to those who lost their lives with a commitment to care about our citizens, embrace our culture, and make the good times toll again. On a picture We Will Rise Again the eyes of the Blue Dog are red because of a broken heart. In 1985 Rodrigue participated in the commercial project, advertising Swedish vodka Absolut. He made two projects, Absolut Louisiana and Absolut Rodrigue, in both of them picturing his trademark Blue Dog and the bottle of Absolut Vodka with flowers in it. Absolut Rodrigue appeared to be the most successful print of this project alongside with Andy Warhol's. In 1989 in French Quarter of New Orleans was opened the Rodrigue Gallery of New Orleans, in 1991 Opened the Galerie Blue Dog in Carmel, California, and in 1998 Rodrigue becomes sole owner of The Rodrigue Gallery of New Orleans (now Rodrigue Studio in New Orleans) and Galerie Blue Dog (now Rodrigue Studio in Carmel).
Besides painting, George Rodrigue published several books: Blue Dog (1994), George Rodrigue: A Cajun Artist (1995), Blue Dog Man (1999), Blue Dog Christmas (2000), Blue 2 George Rodrigue, audiotape d interview. Lafayette, Louisiana. (December 13, 2002). Dog Love (2001), and children's book Why is Blue Dog Blue? (2002). Now George Rodrigue lives and works in Lafayette.
In 1993 Rodrigue divorced with his first wife, with whom he had serious property settlement in 2001 when they discussed the rights for the image of the Blue Dog. Later Rodrigue met Wendy Wolf, who was an art history student at Tulane University. Wendy became his business partner and in 1997 also his second wife. And now they happily call themselves the "Blue Dog" couple.
Bibliography Freundlich, L. S. , & Rodrigue, G. (1994). Blue Dog. New York, Viking Studio Books.
Bradshaw, J. , Freundlich, L. S. , & Rodrigue, G. (1997). George Rodrigue: A Cajun Artist. Penguin Studio. Rodrigue, G. & Brokaw, T. (Foreword). (1999). Blue Dog Man.
New York: Stewart, Tabor and Chang. Mac Cash, D. (2005, April 15). Blue, yes; dog, no. The New Orleans Times Picayune. Martin, G. (2004, Summer). One Man's Best Friend.
Southern Breeze Magazine, 22 - 23.
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