Big Blue Dog, 2001
Born and raised in Cajun Country, Louisiana, USA, artist George Rodrigue portrayed on his canvas what he feared was his dying heritage – including its land, people, traditions, and mythology. As he often explained, he sought to “graphically interpret the Cajun culture,” preserving it in the face of a progressive world.
Rodrigue’s art studies at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and the Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles spawned a success story of American art. In the early 1990s, his Blue Dog Series, based on the French-Cajun loup-garou legend, catapulted him to international fame, while his dark Renaissance-like landscapes developed into robust modern masterpieces.