Blue Dog

Like old folklore, the Blue Dog has changed slightly through the years. Its roots, however, lay in the Cajun tale of the loup-garou, an eerie werewolf-like creature. In 1984, Rodrigue — then a modestly successful artist — was asked to illustrate a book of Cajun ghost stories. His inspiration came from his mother, Marie. "She used to tell me as a boy 'If you're not good today, the loup-garou is going to eat you tonight." Looking for a …

…in the books," he says. "The words only reinforce my ideas, concepts and feelings about why I continue to paint." Each of the artist's galleries (he opened a second in 1990 in Carmel, Calif.) displays about 30 original paintings. But Rodrigue doesn't like to sell more than 10 a month. "We're in a transitional time now, because we're selling too many," he says. "I've been raising prices, to stop the flow of paintings. But that's not helping either."