On March 14, 2014, the George Rodrigue Foundation of the Arts held its first ever Aioli Dinner Fundraiser in Monterey, California. John and Cheryl Pisto, owners of the Whaling Station, hosted thirty couples in their home and the event raised $15,000 for GRFA education programming that will be tied into the Rodrigue Memorial Retrospective now on view in Carmel, CA.
This first ever fundraiser of its kind re-created George Rodrigue’s most famous non-Blue Dog painting from 1971. It was Rodrigue’s first painting with people and guests to this fundraiser were asked to wear black pants, white shirts and black ties.
The original Aioli Dinner painting above depicts a group of Cajun men who gathered in South Louisiana in the early 1900’s and was named for the aioli, garlic mayonaisse sauce, that they used with their cooking.
Rodrigue used the above photograph as the inspiration for the painting and you can learn more about the painting in Wendy Rodrigue’s Musings of An Artist’s Wife blog.
Thank you to all of our California friends that hosted and created the event! We are forever indebted to Jayne and Rich Brinton, Steve and Vel Cox, Neil Shapiro, Saundra Meyrose, Tony and Barbara Ricciardi, Myles and Rhonda Williams and all of George’s friends from the Carmel area.
Also at the event was George’s two sons, Andre and Jacques, as well as Jacques’ new wife, artist Mallory Page Rodrigue.
John Pisto not only hosted the event, but, the entire dinner was filmed and will be featured on his upcoming local television show.
Visit the Whaling Station’s website to view more photos from the event. Thank you everyone for your support and be on the lookout for similar Aioli Dinner Fundraisers in your area!
