Painter George Rodrigue finds honesty in children's art - Spotlight

ChildArt, July-Sept, 2003 by Shelly Sperry

George Rodrigue began painting when he was just about your age. He had an illness called polio when he was eight years old, and had to stay home from school for four months. Painting helped him express himself while he was sick, and he kept painting from then on.

Now George is 59 years old, and he has always made pictures of places and people that are special to him. But he is most famous for pictures of a blue dog called a loup-garou (a werewolf or ghost dog). When he was a child his mother would tell him that if he wasn't good, the loup-garou would come and eat him. In Rodrigue's imagination and in his paintings, this ghost dog from Cajun Louisiana legend has become a bright blue pup, with expressive yellow eyes. She is now known all over the world as "the blue dog." And you might hear people refer to George himself as the "blue dog man."

George is the featured artist at ICAF's 2003 Festival. He will help children create murals about peace on the National Mall. He says that he wants to help children create art because he believes that "childhood is the most important time to encourage creativity."

He thinks that when you paint or draw or make sculpture, you should reach into your own life and tell stories about how you feel and what has happened to you. George does this every day when he paints his portraits of the blue dog. If you look closely, you will see that the dog looks different in each picture, with a different expression or way of sitting. This is because George paints fresh from his memory and his own feelings each time, not looking at the pictures he has made in the past.

George Rodrigue has created a work of art--a silkscreen print--especially for the Festival. Looking at this piece, you can see that he has combined dozens of artworks done by children from all over the world with a large picture of his blue dog. George says that he wanted the picture to show that the way children express themselves in art is part of the way he paints as an adult. He has named the picture "Honesty" because he believes that you express yourself honestly and innocently when you make art as a child. He also believes that children's art "crosses political, religious, and geographic barriers, creating an ... expression of unity and peace."

You can see many of George Rodrigue's artworks on his Web site, www.georgerodrigue.com, or in five books he has written, including Blue Dog Man, which is the story of the Blue Dog's life. His book Why Is Blue Dog Blue? is a funny guide that will help you learn more about how artists think about color. On George's Web site, you can also see a special section devoted to children and art, which will soon include art made by children from all over the world.

A retrospective on George Rodrigue will be released in November 2003. Titled The Art of George Rodrique (Abrams), it will examine the full range of the painter's career, from his early portrayals of his native Louisiana to the images that have made the Blue Dog an international pop icon.

Rodrigue will embark on a ten-city book tour November 10-26, 2003. Two exhibitions of his work will be presented in early 2004: an exhibition at the Louisiana State Exhibit Museum January-February 2004 and at the Pensacola Museum of Art April 2-May 15, 2004. For further information, visit www.georgerodrigue.com.