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Rodrigue: Artist will bring Blue Dog art to Shreveport
Posted on January 11, 2004

A little dog named Tiffany made him famous.

The dog was blue.

Paintings of the Blue Dog catapulted Louisiana artist George Rodrigue to international recognition. A retrospective of his career - with an emphasis on the "Blue Dog" series - opens today at the Louisiana State Exhibit Museum. The exhibit also will contain two special works - Louisiana Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco: Official Inaugural Painting and Mike the Tiger, a special commission. This is the first exhibition showing for both paintings.

"I never thought that would do it for me," said Rodrigue in a telephone interview from his Lafayette home. "I thought where I was before was the place to be."

He had been painting for 25 years before the Blue Dog entered his life.

"I had survived. Shreveport had always been a good market for me. I had sold earlier paintings there to such people as Sissy Lavigne, Palmer Long and Carl Jones."

His work then was painting Cajun scenes, which was a natural for him since he was born in New Iberia.

An emphasis he had was painting from Cajun folklore and using the legend of the loup-garou - a werewolf or ghost dog. He used his own little dog, the aforementioned Tiffany, as a sort of model. He would paint the loup-garou into various scenes. Tiffany was a mixture, mostly terrier.

At an exhibit on Rodeo Drive in Los Angeles' Beverly Hills, some of the paintings were of night scenes and showed the canine figure in the moonlight. Californians kept saying, "Oh, look, it's a blue dog."

Rodrigue said that sure enough, the figure did have a bluish-gray look to it. The Blue Dog moniker appealed to him. When the 1989 Super Bowl was played in New Orleans, where he has a gallery, the artist painted a good many Blue Dog pictures and put them in his gallery windows. Such media as the Wall Street Journal, People magazine and USA Today noticed and did feature stories.

"I think I did about 45 paintings," the artist said. "I knew I made it when The Wall Street Journal used the Blue Dog in one corner of the front page and President George Bush (the father) in the other corner."

The Blue Dog simply took off and became one of the popular icons of the 1990s, even hawking Absolut vodka in commercials. The Blue Dog was everywhere, including the poster at one of the Red River Revel Arts Festivals here where it sold like the proverbial hot cakes.

Forrest Dunn, administrator for Louisiana State Exhibit Museum, had a good reason for booking the Rodrigue exhibit.

"When I first took this job, I said I wanted to have traveling exhibits, and I wanted to have more exposure. The way is to have good exhibits. At the same time as having outside-the-state exhibits, I also wanted local people as well as other people in the state.

"George Rodrigue has a good reputation in the state, as well as outside. He is national and international. I thought the exhibit would be something the people would love to see and also have the chance to meet him since he will be here for three days. One of our goals is to make this museum one of the premier museums of the South. We're putting bricks on that goal."

One Shreveporter interested in Rodrigue's exhibit is Dr. Clarence Teagle.

"I have three of his New Orleans Jazz Festival posters at my home, and three of the Blue Dog series, which are signed, in each of my exam rooms. I met him once when he was painting at a restaurant on the way to Baton Rouge.

"I think the little blue dog is unique ... just interesting. I went to his studio in New Orleans and saw how expensive his paintings have become. The blue dog is such an unusual sight. Most people who come to the office like the pictures, especially the younger ones."

Another interested party is Joe Fertitta, owner of Fertitta's 6301 Restaurant.

Fertitta laughed and said, "I call the restaurant my George Rodrigue kennel. I have some of his paintings on the dining room walls, and I have some at home. I like the Blue Dog. He's cute. He doesn't talk back, doesn't have to be fed or picked up after. He's better than kids.

"I got on to Rodrigue in the early days, the early '90s. His paintings are whimsical, and they have a great message: simplicity. People all over the United States have eaten here, and I have given them the addresses of his New Orleans and Carmel galleries. I know of at least a dozen pieces that I helped to sell. People enjoy them that much."

Besides the New Orleans and Carmel, Calif., galleries, Rodrigue has another gallery in Japan to give his art international scope.

"The Japanese gallery has been there 10 years," Rodrigue said. "They like the Blue Dog."

The artist actually is embarking on a five-year tour with this exhibit, which complements his latest book, The Art of George Rodrigue.

"It's a retrospective book, and that's why I am touring the museums. Shreveport is the first stop and then it will go to Pensacola. The book came out in November, and I did a small book tour then. The 25,000 printing sold out in five days, and now the book is being reprinted."

The artist said the Blue Dog series is still fun for him and still a challenge.

"Each one is different. You can't take one blue dog and put it in another painting. That dog goes with that painting, each with its own environment. When you see the exhibit, you see that. It's no albatross. It's a challenge to make it continually interesting to me and to everyone else. The Blue Dog goes through phases and concepts."

Rodrigue said the Blue Dog has freed him from what he considered a rut he didn't know he was in with his Cajun paintings.

"Colorwise it opened my whole world up to something new and got me out of South Louisiana. I am certainly not tired of it yet. It's really fun. Once you have an audience, you can play to that audience.

"I am doing more serious and larger paintings now, about 35 a year. All of them are the Blue Dog. When the Blue Dog really hit, I was doing about 280 paintings a year. I felt like a machine then. Now I feel like a creative person."

If you go

EXHIBIT: "George Rodrigue: 40-Year Retrospective."

WHEN: opens today and runs through Feb. 28. There is a free and open reception today from 2 to 4 p.m. at which the artist will sign The Art of George Rodrigue - A Cajun Artist. Book costs $50.

WHERE: Louisiana State Exhibit Museum, 3015 Greenwood Road.

HOURS: 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday; noon to 4 p.m. Saturday, Sunday.

ADMISSION: $5 for adults, $1 for ages 6-17, free for age 5 and younger. There is free admission the first Sunday of every month, including today's opening.

SPECIAL EVENTS: Monday at 10 a.m. at the museum, Rodrigue will address school children and at 2 p.m. at Barnes & Noble, 6646 Youree Drive, he will sign his book. Tuesday at 10 a.m. at the museum, he will address school children and at noon address the Downtown Rotary Club at the Downtown Holiday Inn.