Art

Outer Journey:

For my artist I chose George Rodrigue. He is most famous for his work on “The Blue Dog.” In the 1980’s a company approached George with a visual project that would depict Louisiana. He started painting his Cajun style paintings with large trees, and figures that had an almost ghostly appearance. In the back of the paintings there was an old house, that many times appeared to be haunted, and an evil dog with red eyes that was protecting it. This evil dog would prove to be an iconic masterpiece that shows both the best in Cajun art work, and also become a sort of symbol of Louisiana and New Orleans. These collections of paintings went on to be known as the Bayou collections. Through discussion with some people that worked at his studio, I found that originally, it is rumored, that George originally depicted a beautiful figure standing in front of the house, that showed no sign of intimate death, but later changed it to an evil dog that guarded the house. It was his dog Tiffany, however, that was his inspiration for the paintings of the blue dog. She had been his companion for years, and would always be up late at night with him watching him paint. Over the years he took hundreds of pictures of Tiffany and set out to paint a mural of her to “make her feel better” about being the runt of the litter. Although they joked, that he said she was a mean little dog and often would big guests and tear up things around the house. For years, he tried to convince people that the painting were not just paintings of his dog, which would ultimately hurt the imagine and not make it worth any more than a portrait of one’s pet, but a symbol of Cajun style artistry. George always painted with a sense of simpleness, but also was very deliberate with where he put each detail. This dog was largely unknown until the 1990’s, where it became known worldwide very quickly. The thing that set this dog painting apart of any other, was how George seemed to invent this new art from nothing. He didn’t use anything outside to draw a crowd such as symbols or a specific phrasing, he simply imagined it and it was there. This painting was 100 percent George. Before the blue dog he was known locally and somewhat nationally for his Cajun style paintings, and depictions of the people of New Orleans. My favorite Blue dog, was the sculpture of the blue dog that rotated at the front of his studio. This dog had three faces and with each face he had a different color, red, blue, and yellow. The detail in these scuptures was incredible. The way his lines were crooked almost made it seem like it was not professional, but then the symmetry and the bright color drew your attention even closer. The dog’s had yellow eyes, and no two eyes were the same. Each eye had a distinct shape, even if it had a small curve in the line, no two eyes were the same. These dogs originally had red eyes, but George later changed them to yellow to make it less frightening to people.

Inner Journey:

Throughout this trip there has been countless artist in this city. Some of the most beautiful, detail, and most complex art I have seen. So why would I choose a simple blue dog to write about rather than one of these? The answer is, I don’t really know why. When I walked up to this painting something just stuck with me. I think the simpleness of it is what really made me stop and try to make it more complicated than it was. This simple work made my imagination go wild. I have always been a creative person, but I am not an artist. I do however love looking at detailed art work. Which is why it is so surprising that I chose this artist. On the surface, George Rodrique work seems like there is not much to it, but the closer I looked and the more I talked with people the more I understood the significance of each painting. George put small details in paintings to make people stop and think about what the significance of that painting was. Their seemly was nothing in his paintings that was simply by accident. With the sculpture of the blue dogs with three faces, they say he created it to show the different moods that each dog represents. That, although George never came out and said it, with each color came a different mood or emotion that went with that particular dog. Each dog even, if you looked closely, had a slightly different facial expression. This artist work spoke to me because on the outside I look very simple, but if you look closer I have things about me that you would have never thought to look for. I feel like I can connect to his paintings in this way. The stories that Georges work tells are ones of history, good times, bad times, culture, and everything in between. His painting’s gave some insight into the everyday life of New Orleans people. The geniuses in the dog paintings, in my opinion, was adding a familiar object that everyone could recognize, that told a story of the place he lived. Many artists have come from New Orleans that painted about the culture, but none of them captured the attention of the world quite like George Rodrigue did. The particular statue that was my favorite of all of his piece didn’t necessarily tell a story, but rather gave an expression of the different phases the infamous blue dog had been. Now the blue dog is known as only blue by many, but it was interesting to me that George Originally planned to have different colored dogs for different situations. Overall, I felt that the George Rodrigue was the best artist I saw while in New Orleans, and if I had the money I would by many of his paintings.