Louisiana Cultural Vistas - Summer 2008 - (Page 19)

Oil on canvas, 36” diameter Private Collection LILLY, 2002 Oil on canvas, 20”x20” Private Collection GRETCHEN, 2002 Then, all of a sudden, he doesn’t want to do that WRONG CENTURY, 1991 Oil on canvas, 24”x36” any more. He wants to paint Blue Dogs. Not since Private Collection Andy Warhol rediscovered Campbell’s soup has an artist spun so much gold out of a single image as George has out of, his beloved dog. His success has enveloped the dog in a fog of mystery. George tells me that people often ask him, “What does the dog symbolize?” and he has to tell them, “Nuthin’, it’s just a dog.” Because he is an artist, people don’t believe him. They think he’s being brilliant. But when George paints the dog he’s not thinking about a dog. He’s thinking about color. Color was its appeal: The Blue Dog liberated him from the dun-colored palette of Cajun daily life. Oil on canvas, 36” diameter Private Collection ELENA, 2002 I find it odd that the Blue Dog is what George is most famous for, and even odder that, when the Blue Dog became an international craze, he quit painting them. His bankers, no doubt, disapprove. I find it odd that the Blue Dog is what George is most famous for, and even odder that, when the Blue Dog became an international craze, he quit painting them. His bankers, no doubt, disapprove. But these days George is painting only Hurricanes. Why I don’t know, other than that it has nothing to do with any deep interest in meteorology. But I do know that this storm, too, shall pass. One day George will wake up and decide that he’ll never paint another Hurricane—that he doesn’t like this house any more than the others. He’ll need to build another one, and paint it a different color. LCV Excerpted with permission from The Art of George Rodrigue (Harry N Abrams; November 2003). For more information: www.georgerodrigue.com/books.htm Oil on canvas, 40”x40” Private Collection FLOYD, 2002 Michael Lewis is the author of several books, including the bestsellers Moneyball, Liar’s Poker, and The New New Thing, and is a contributor to the New York Times magazine. Summer 2008/LOUISIANA ENDOWMENT FOR THE HUMANITIES 19 http://www.georgerodrigue.com/books.htm

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Louisiana Cultural Vistas - Summer 2008

Louisiana Cultural Vistas - Summer 2008 Contents Friends Editor’s Column Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities George Rodrigue’s Louisiana: Cajuns, Blue Dogs & Beyond Katrina The Historic New Orleans Collection After The Flood Faubourg Marigny: The Creole “Suburb” Preserving New Orleans Jazz, One Generation at a Time: Conversation & Music with Tom Sancton Louisiana Foodways Louisiana Architecture Baton Rouge Photographs, 1863-1910 Jazz Notes The Ogden Museum of Southern Art Louisiana Association of Museums Nature of the “Beast” Louisiana State Museum Bookstand Sound Advice Forum

Louisiana Cultural Vistas - Summer 2008

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