Molly McGuire
Molly McGuire is a self-taught artist and musician who goes by "Magwire." She was born and raised in Ontario Canada, but has made New Orleans her home base. When it comes to her art, her most recent and famous endeavor, is creating circus banners, To make these circus banners, she repurpose old drop clothes and canvases, and paints on them with oils and latex house paints. These painted circus banners have been featured in the television show "American Horror Story" during the episode "Freakshow" in season 4. Molly found her inspiration for her circus banners from her memories of the circus that was set up behind her Ontario home when she was younger. She described the circus as "something that transformed the town that I lived in from the most boring place to the most exciting place imaginable."
*We didn't see any of Molly McGuire's circus banners in person during our trip to New Orleans, but Kendra, Marcy, and I made sure to watch the episode of American Horror Story that her art is featured in during one of our free nights. It was so cool seeing them in the episode after researching her. During the episode called "Freakshow," Molly's circus banners were show in the background. The banners had different circus characters painted on them, like Siamese Sisters and Pinheads. Here are the Circus Banners featured in American Horror Story:
George Rodrigue
George Rodrigue was born in Louisiana, and as he grew older he realized he loved the everything about the Cajun Country. He admired the land, people, and traditions. When he began his art studies at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and the Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles he kept all of these Cajun characteristics in mind. Rodrigue's darker landscape painting turned into more modern pieces of art. As his style change, he quickly turned into a success story with his Blue Dog Series. This Blue Dog Series is based off of the French-Cajun loup-garou legend. Rodrigue was more than just an artist though. He founded the George Rodrigue Foundation of the Arts to help advocate the importance of art education in Louisiana high school. Rodrigue passed away in 2013, but his original paintings can be found in the Quarter in Rodrigue Studio.
“I grew up feeling a strong relationship to the old things, to the old culture, and I got a stronger feeling when I went to Los Angeles to school. I really started to understand how different I was and how different my Louisiana was.”
*We visited Rodrigue Studio in person during our trip to New Orleans, and it was so fun to see the Blue Dog Series in person. When we walked into the studio, there was a big cow statue with the blue dog painted on it. There were also other fun objects with the famous Blue Dog painted on it like a piano and a table. All of the paintings were so much bigger than I expected which was awesome to see in person. Just seeing pictures of them made me think they were much smaller. It was also cool to see the famous Blue Dog other places as well. The Blue Dog was all over the city, especially in some souvenir shops.
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