George Rodrigue was an American painter known for his iconic and long-running Blue Dog series of paintings. Beginning in the late 1980s, Rodrigue painted a reoccurring character of a blue dog with yellow eyes, always in the same pose but placed in a variety of settings. The character became a popular and well-known image outside of the art world, notably being featured in an Absolut Vodka advertising campaign. He was born on March 13, 1944 in New Iberia, LA and studied at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. In 1975, he was awarded an Honorable Mention from Le Salon in Paris, and dubbed by the French newspaper Le Figaro as the ÒAmerican Rousseau.Ó The artist has also painted Cajun celebrities, such as Paul Prudhomme, and several US presidents, including George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton.