To date, we have donated more than one million dollars from sales of these relief prints directly to those who need it most, including human service agencies such as the Southeast Louisiana Chapter of the American Red Cross and the United Way, and arts programs such as the New Orleans Museum of Art, the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities. With your help, we will continue. Thank you for your support!…. George Rodrigue is a Louisiana artist who created the Blue Dog image. He has been painting for forty years and still shows his work in his original gallery on Royal Street in the New Orleans French Quarter.
One of the beautiful things to come out of the tragedy that was Hurrican Katrina was the willingness of so many people to do what they could to help. That help has taken many forms over the past two years, some subtle and some impossible to ignore. No matter how big or how small the helping hand has been, though, even more needs to be done. George Rodrigue is someone who has taken his fame and the unique artwork he’s known for and turned it into a way to help New Orleans get back on it’s feet. No, selling a few prints isn’t going to put the Ninth Ward back together as if nothing had happened, but a million dollars can still do a lot of good. Rodrigue has taken his talent and used it to spread awareness and raise money for the city he loves. New Orleans may never be what it once was, but with people like Rodrigue doing what they can to help out, the Crescent City is in better shape than it might otherwise be.
The truly sad aspect of this story is that $1 million is a mere drop in the bucket. While still a large sum of money under any circumstances, $1 million will not even begin to make a dent in the needs the city of New Orleans currently faces. Soemthing is always better than nothing, though, and you can make a difference by purchasing some of Rodrigue’s work. Hey, c’mon now…Christmas isn’t that far away…and if anyone really feels like making a donation, I would LOVE to have this print. Yes, I would.
