Well, to be precise, R.I.P. George Rodrigue, painter of the Blue Dog. (And, as always, fuck cancer.)

RIP (and to Red Croc too).

I was never a fan of his art. Prior to the Blue Dog craze skyrocketing him into the national media, he was famous for his portraits of local celebrities. This was an odd choice for him, since likenesses were far from his strong suit. But he worked the promotion of his art like a champ and sold tons of those paintings of politicians in white linen suits standing beneath moss laden oaks with some item or sign worked in that let the viewer know who the painting was supposed to represent.

I admire him for the way he worked the system. Artists around here complain about having to paint alligators and crawfish into their paintings for them to be considered "Louisiana artists". My answer has always been that if they want to make Rodrigue money, they need to work the system as he did.

Robert, I agree — I always thought the Blue Dog was successful way out of proportion to even its gimmick value, yet admired Rodrigue as a professional artist for making his schtick work so well.

I remember in the late 80's, watching Hollywood Squares, and Whoopi Goldberg had one of Rodrique's early Blue Dogs displayed on the front of her square. That blew my mind. A few years later he was in that Absolut campaign and he had it made.