A Blue Dog Christmas

For the Blue Dog Man, Christmas is a holiday steeped in sentiment, a season that evokes the artist's earliest recollections of drawing, painting - and forming the first tentative thoughts about the canine who, decades later, would become his signature creation. In A Blue Dog Christmas, the painter takes readers back in time, to New Iberia, Louisiana, in the 1950s. On a quiet street in this sleepy bayou town, the twelve-year-old George Rodrigue found his calling, and discovered that the true meaning of Christmas is not to give, but to create. With original holiday-themed prints, George Rodrigue adds a new dimension to the now- legendary Blue Dog tale. Through his art, he illustrates how his childhood pets, Lady and Trixie (both terrier/spaniels like Tiffany, the inspiration for Blue Dog), played a central role in the family's Christmas festivities. The joyous images in this volume are based on his heartwarming memories of the dogs' holiday antics. This enlightening Christmas tale combines the appeal of almost twenty new Blue Dog images with an invigorating design that even includes an irresistible Blue Dog tree ornament. A Blue Dog Christmas will charm new readers and be cherished by longtime fans for many yuletides to come.

GEORGE RODRIGUE was born in New Iberia, in the heart of French Louisiana. For twenty-five years the artist painted scenes of Cajun life and culture, and many of those acclaimed works are now on display at the George Rodrigue Museum, Acadian Village, in Lafayette, Louisiana. The "Blue Dog" series, started in the mid-1980s, catapulted George Rodrigue to worldwide fame as the image of the original Cajun werewolf dog - loup-garou - has transformed into an international pop icon. Rodrigue owns and operates two galleries, in New Orleans and Carmel, California.