Artist George Rodrigue’s Blue Dog Goes Digital: Blue Dog 123 iPad App Released

New Orleans, Louisiana --- The George Rodrigue Foundation of the Arts (GRFA) is pleased to announce that the children’s educational app “You Can Count on Blue Dog: Blue Dog 123” is currently available as a FREE download for the iPad in Apple’s iTunes App Store .

This iPad app is a fun way for children to learn counting while enjoying the fabulous Blue Dog artwork of George Rodrigue. Each page displays a different piece of George's original art with countable objects. Through touch the objects can be counted in any order and children hear pronunciation plus see the number displayed. Randomly chosen numbers of objects in many pages makes this app more interesting to re-read and the beautiful art, combined with the story of Blue Dog's adventures, makes learning to count lots of fun!

The new app is the first app by internationally renowned Cajun artist, author, and creator of the Blue Dog series, George Rodrigue. The app was created in conjunction with the Louisiana Digital Gaming Initiative (LDGI) and the Academy of Interactive Entertainment (AIE). LGDI introduced AIE to Rodrigue and then three students at AIE’s Canberra, Australia campus created and programmed the app in their free-time outside of their coursework.

According to George Rodrigue, “I have fun with the computer as an artistic and creative tool no different than a paintbrush or clay. At the same time, children seem drawn to my art, especially the notion that they don’t have to paint things the way they really are. After two successful children’s books, I’m excited about my first iPad app, a natural progression in today’s computer world. In addition, this falls right in line with the mission of the George Rodrigue Foundation of the Arts, supporting youth development through art in education. I could not have been more thrilled than when the Academy of Interactive Entertainment’s students chose this app as their class project. Like the app itself, its creation by students once again reinforces the goals of GRFA.”

We would especially like to thank the people that made this app possible. Dr. Christopher Erhardt from AIE helped us to get this project started. Lea Bartlett, Head of School for AIE"s Canberra Campus, oversaw the students work. And, most importantly, we want to recgonize the great work that the students did in their free time. Mitchell Standen programmed the app and the art was adopted for the application by Maria Zelenskaya and Erin Slater. It is very inspirational to see that these students were willing to donate their time in order to help us make this app.

Louisiana Digital Gaming Initiative (LDGI) is founded and operated by Jeff Pellegrin. LDGI is a non-profit trade association of businesses and professionals of the video and electronic game manufacturing industry of Louisiana. For more information visit http://www.ldgi.biz/

Academy of Interactive Entertainment (AIE) Since its establishment in 1996, AIE has earned much recognition as Australia’s leading educator for the Computer Game Development and 3D Digital industries. AIE has grown significantly over the years and now has campuses in Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra. For more information visit http://www.aie.edu.au/

The George Rodrigue Foundation of the Arts (GRFA) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, which advocates the importance of the visual arts in the development of our youth. GRFA encourages the use of art within all curriculums and supports a variety of art educational programs. For more information, please visit www.georgerodriguefoundation.org or call 504-324-9614.