We asked Douglas to answer a few questions last week in anticipation of the opening of You Are Here:
1. What do you feel was your first real work of art and what can you tell us that's significant about it?
For my first solo show in Toronto I did a series of black and white photodrawings. Throughout art school I had been looking for my own 'voice'; to be able to have things just come to me rather than go chasing after them. I had been ok with the work from art school and thought I that maybe I had formed what to do and how to do it. But right after graduating I chanced across a few influences and techniques which I put together for the photodrawings and the first one just seemed to fall off my hands like I had been doing this for years. It really had the sense of this is what I've been searching for. It wasn't the image so much but the place I was making work from. It was significant in that, since then, I have always tried to keep a connection with that way of making work, of having an intuitive understanding of what to do.
2. You have a very vast portfolio with a variety of work, are there any common threads over the course of your career or would you say they are all independent or individual? Any particular exhibition that has been your favorite?
The blue and white paintings are very similar to the aforementioned photodrawings. In some ways its like going full circle back to where I started. I feel comfortable with monochrome because it is always essentially drawing no matter what the medium is and for me drawing offers the most freedom. You can quickly merge and handle a lot of disparate influences, thoughts and images that in full color would take more consideration. Also monochrome has that much less association with the real world and I've always tried to make things that seem to be about or from somewhere else. If I was to see a common thread in all my work it might be that. Perhaps my work follows a precept of science fiction, where 'now' is exposed in greater clarity by its contrast to an imagined 'not-now'. The work tries to look at here from 'over there', intending that a shift in perspective will create a fresh image that will engage the viewer.
3. What made you lock into the current blue and white palate that seems dominant of the last decade. Does it symbolize anything? How long do you think you'll continue with it?
I started painting in 1992 and at first concentrated on learning technique and then began to make a series of paintings of melancholic lost places. I had a sense of what these paintings might look like and developed a technique to paint them. Later I wanted to represent a disparate variety of subjects, like architectural renderings, landscape paintings, portraiture, botanical drawings, microscopic photography, ceramic illustrations, azulejos, calligraphy, and typography. I didn't want to be restricted to to those subjects that I knew how to paint. I kept experimenting with technique and mediums until I came upon working with transparent colors and then I dropped it to just blue and developed a way of brush handling that offered a technique that could handle all these different subjects. All at once any subject became possible so that has opened things up endlessly. I may add some color at some point but I feel I've come across something that will keep me occupied from here on.
4. What is the greatest influence on your work now as well as in your early development?
I was lucky to have some great teachers in art school.
5. How did the opportunity for your upcoming traveling museum show unfold and what can you tell us about it?
In 2001 I did a show of large folded paper paintings at The museum of Contemporary Canadian Art in Toronto. They were painted in a more naturalistic style, and the show was well relieved. A few years ago I mentioned to a curator who had seen the show that I would like to do a blue & white version of that show and that idea grew into fruition. The show is curated by Corinna Ghaznavi and Peter Dykhuis and will travel to Robert McLaughlin Art Gallery in Oshawa, the Kelowna Art Gallery, and the Dalhousie Art Galleryin Halifax and will be accompanied by a catalog. I'm really honored to have this opportunity but I have to admit that when I first saw how large the room was in Oshawa I almost balked. Its huge! Its a room that's 40 x 80' with 14' ceilings. The room in Kelowna is the same size. The starting plan is to make really big folded blue and white paintings and link them all together so that they form a continuous wall of paintings that cover completely two walls of the room, in effect a 120' long painting. Its a lot, probably way too much, but I'm going to start with that plan, try for it, and see where we end up.3. What made you lock into the current blue and white palate that seems dominant of the last decade. Does it symbolize anything? How long do you think you'll continue with it?
I started painting in 1992 and at first concentrated on learning technique and then began to make a series of paintings of melancholic lost places. I had a sense of what these paintings might look like and developed a technique to paint them. Later I wanted to represent a disparate variety of subjects, like architectural renderings, landscape paintings, portraiture, botanical drawings, microscopic photography, ceramic illustrations, azulejos, calligraphy, and typography. I didn't want to be restricted to to those subjects that I knew how to paint. I kept experimenting with technique and mediums until I came upon working with transparent colors and then I dropped it to just blue and developed a way of brush handling that offered a technique that could handle all these different subjects. All at once any subject became possible so that has opened things up endlessly. I may add some color at some point but I feel I've come across something that will keep me occupied from here on.
4. What is the greatest influence on your work now as well as in your early development?
I was lucky to have some great teachers in art school.
5. How did the opportunity for your upcoming traveling museum show unfold and what can you tell us about it?
In 2001 I did a show of large folded paper paintings at The museum of Contemporary Canadian Art in Toronto. They were painted in a more naturalistic style, and the show was well relieved. A few years ago I mentioned to a curator who had seen the show that I would like to do a blue & white version of that show and that idea grew into fruition. The show is curated by Corinna Ghaznavi and Peter Dykhuis and will travel to Robert McLaughlin Art Gallery in Oshawa, the Kelowna Art Gallery, and the Dalhousie Art Galleryin Halifax and will be accompanied by a catalog. I'm really honored to have this opportunity but I have to admit that when I first saw how large the room was in Oshawa I almost balked. Its huge! Its a room that's 40 x 80' with 14' ceilings. The room in Kelowna is the same size. The starting plan is to make really big folded blue and white paintings and link them all together so that they form a continuous wall of paintings that cover completely two walls of the room, in effect a 120' long painting. Its a lot, probably way too much, but I'm going to start with that plan, try for it, and see where we end up.
6. How does the work that you created for "You are here" relate to the museum show?
The first thing I wanted to work out for the museum show was how to keep an intuitive approach to paint handling and composition at this new scale. For the 'you are here piece' I did a very quick small, roughly drawn thumbnail and tried to keep its speed and crudity while I figured out how to 'big up' the brushes and process for the painting. It was a technical challenge but it was really fun to do and I'm relieved in that the few that have seen it so far are finding it successful. I'm looking forwards to making more.
7. What is your main goal when creating art?
To make something I haven't seen before.
8. Would you say that your art has an agenda and if so what is it?
No, I've tried to avoid determining what I do because the process of doing that can interfere with establishing an intuitive process in the studio.
