George Rodrigue (American/Louisiana, 1944-2013), "My Moon My Life", 1990, oil on canvas, signed lower left, signed, titled and dated en verso, 30 in. x 24 in., original frame . Provenance: Acquired from the artist, New Orleans, LA, 1991. Ill.: Rodrigue, George. Blue Dog. New York: Viking Studio Books, 1994, ch. 9. Note: In 1990, George Rodrigue filled his New Orleans gallery with Blue Dog paintings for Super Bowl XXIV, attracting the attention of both collectors and the national media. These early paintings in the series originated from and still bore striking similarity to their loup-garou predecessors, with textured fur and a light blue-grey color. The Blue Dog remained within the Louisiana landscape of Rodrigue’s Cajun series, however, he began for the first time to think of them as something outside of the bayous and swamps. A phenomenon had begun, and the early Blue Dogs very soon shifted into a number of different series as the artist explored new directions. “My Moon My Life” offered here represents the brief, but highly important, transitional moment for Rodrigue, bridging the Cajun series and Blue Dog series.
“My Moon My Life” also served as the album cover of “Dans Le Creux Du Bois (In the Deep of the Woods)” by John “The Cajun Balladeer” DuBois. Born in Vermillion Parish, DuBois is credited with preserving many forgotten classic Cajun and French tunes, passed on to him by his grandparents and childhood music teacher. He recorded Cajun ballads for the Folk Music Archives in the Library of Congress and was a popular festival performer. A friend of Rodrigue, DuBois provided the music for the opening party of Galerie Blue Dog in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California in 1991 while Chef Paul Prudhomme catered for the crowds.
Ref.: Rodrigue, Wendy. “Blue Dog: The Ghost of Tiffany, 1990-1992.” Musings of an Artist’s Wife. Nov. 1, 2009. www.wendyrodrigue.com. Accessed May 19, 2019.
Neal Auction Company would like to thank Wendy Rodrigue for her assistance with this note.