douglas brent smith

 Fun With The Boys - collage by douglas brent smith, 28 December 1987

 Small Town Boys -- collage by douglas brent smith

Make room for creativity and watch how much it grows. -- doug smith  

  One Instant In The Brain -- mixed media by douglas brent smith

  How to Test Drive a Pickle -- collage by douglas brent smith, 25 December 1987

  From Each Hand Until The End -- collage by douglas brent smith, 1988

  How Did I Get This Job? - collage by douglas brent smith, 27 December 1987

 Bill Said Yes - collage by douglas brent smith, 3 January 1987 Notes: Originally titles "George Said Yes" but clearly that is Bill (I think it might be the actor Bill Irwin) and Bill is being asked a question, to which he enthusiastically answers "Yes!"

  Extend Your Reach - collage by douglas brent smith, 25 December 1987

i said to you our shoes in the sand your hand in my hand in a trance of truth i said to you my best inner secrets as the sun set and a light breeze caught your brown hair remarkable i said to you touching your cheek with care like a leaf whispering what i should have said years ago there is love that may be delayed but not denied true then, true on that beach. true still. -- douglas brent smith

  Chaos In The Middle - sketch by douglas brent smith (with help from Christopher Morgan Cizewski Smith.

  Baby Island - collage by douglas brent smith 26 December 1987

 A Cast of Thousands at Play -- sketch by douglas brent smith

the left hand starts a bass line avoiding familiar notes, for accidentals the right hand takes a ride let me sing of your changes (andante) swell...swell...who can tell? let me glissando your joys (forte!) and then mid-transposition the two of us harmonize and bring all the mystery down to size,  -- douglas brent smith

  With Greater Detail - mixed media by douglas brent smith

  A Cast of Thousands (partial close-up) - sketch by douglas brent smith

  Dream Birds Over Pulaski - sketch by douglas brent smith, 1985

white cloud blue sky sudden darkness odor from a distant unknown source bitter tasting, no permission chemicals drifted in a virgin course like a losing hand played to a devil's trick for no reason half the town is sick a stranger talking in a legal voice bottled water is the only choice dark days dry from a ruined well twenty square miles of obnoxious smell poison water makes a person think tainted life line not a drop to drink.  -- douglas brent smith

  Tango Rango - sketch by douglas brent smith

  still life -- painting by douglas brent smith

 Dangerous Art - 1984 - sketch by douglas brent smith, 1984

i found you before life left any dents before the form found flaws and with open wonderment alive and ready for more you found me ready for new forms fresh foundation sparks! light! early morning smiles receiving all the giving and living ready for more every past piece of effort faded as we created this new kind of kiss tighter and sweeter and slightly awkward youthfully extending our freely found arms around gladness hey you hey you we found each other ready for each other and did not let go. -- douglas brent smith

  Window Box, 1984 - drawing by douglas brent smith, 1984

  What's Wrong With Dogu? -- collage by douglas brent smith, 7 July 1983

  Wait a Minute - collage by douglas brent smith, 14 November 1983

The less creative you feel, the closer you are to feeling creative again. -- douglas brent smith

Celebrate the joy within what is, and then what's missing will appear. The picture is already complete. -- douglas brent smith

  Happy Faces on Parade - sketch by douglas brent smith

  Hairy Ape -- mixed media sketch by douglas brent smith, 1984

 bizarre ensemble duo -- sketch by douglas brent smith,  from "the bizarre chronicles, volume one" 1984

 Vans In Space - collage by douglas brent smith

  i am not anonymous i am not a number you can push around so get off my back! do not pigeon-hole me or patronize me or i'll come unglued not the common man i get uncommon as often as i can so stop measuring me reassuringly i am not anonymous i am not a number you can push around so get off my back! -- douglas brent smith

  Valuable Merchandise -- collage by douglas brent smith, 1978

  Unstoppable In Collageland -- collage by douglas brent smith, 1980

he was cute and younger than me but not illegally younger and wearing a tight orange and purple  shirt that had written across the chest "are you gay?" and he smiled and i thought "isn't everyone?"  -- douglas brent smith

  Two Guitars -- sketch by douglas brent smith

  Road Control - collage by douglas brent smith, 30 January 1984

Strength is not a zero-sum game. Your strength does not subtract strength from anyone else (or shouldn't). Someone else's strength does not subtract from yours. Sometimes we act like it does, but it need not be that way. As high performance leaders our job is to help others to develop their strength. In the process, we develop our own. Our strength does not depend on anyone's weakness. We never need for anyone else to ever be less in order for us to be more. We can all grow. We can all improve. We can, and should, all develop our leadership strength. -- doug smith

  Now Go! collage by douglas brent smith, 27 January 1984

  i saw it coming and started running but it never seemed to stop it flashed like a light in the middle of the night and exploded with a loud piercing pop the morning hit me and my shirt didn't fit me and beer cans were bent at my feet i walked to the kitchen someone started bitchin' and led me back to the street cars were passing and hustlers were hassling every new face that strolled by i jumped to the street dodging the heat while my feet did their best to fly like a circus clown in a strange dark town i reached for your number and phoned come save me from this with a smile and a kiss it's too much to face all alone you balked and you stalled and said why did you call? you need to find someplace to stay the high that sustained us was destined to fall and the feelings have all flown away. -- douglas brent smith

  Life Goes On - sketch by douglas brent smith, 1984

 I Can Take You Anywhere -- collage by douglas brent smith, 30 January 1984

  she shared some details of the road trip with the teen in a van not too many intense infraction type details it was fill in the blanks with too much thinking heart wrenching imagination like why would two people in a van driving together sharing inside secrets and cheap road food not be more than she said playing a players game of silence and selective facts believable whether deceivable  or not who could know she met a native american guide entering the great grand canyon already ahead of her hiking below the entertainer chevy chase working up his best sweat "losing weight for a part," he told her he seemed nice she told me she, so sun tanned deeply in pain followed the guide's instructions scaling the canyon, seeking and finding her peace on her own in shorts and a shirt a weight loss plan of her own for that burn in her heart immune from her lotions medicines and potions yet falling away as she scaled deeper to release the one-hundred-and-ninety pounds of disappointm...

  when the motion slips into another space explanations defy attempts to reconcile part of the magic lives in everything      that's ever been      and ever is like a wave all of our days are part of something more complex than we can see so the part of you in me and me in you goes on some of the energy conserved in all      that's ever drawn      from breath lives on -- douglas brent smith

  Friendly Advice -- collage by douglas brent smith, 14 November 1983, from the journal "Theme and Variation"

 Back Cover, Theme and Variation -- collage by douglas brent smith, 1983 NOTES: Not so much a collage as a collection of images that builds up as I'm writing a journal, this one from 1983 - 1984. Based on the pictures on the wall, the picture at the bottom of Dorinda and me playing together is from Bridgeton, NJ -- no doubt Dad & Edna's house on Jay Avenue. We look happy. The woman on the slide of course is Nena and she looks happy, too. These were perhaps dramatic but oh so happy times.

  movements                    from a stranger blackouts from the center of the soul childlike prods                 to an undiscovered corner tripping, tipping                    into a hole movements                   as the stranger blackouts from the cage of ourselves liberating touches                 on the edge of frenzy seizing, freezing                  short of the goal where is the cutting edge? one of us is bleeding. -- douglas brent smith

  Two Happy Folks -- sketch by douglas brent smith, 1978

  The Motion Age Beatnik -- collage by douglas brent smith, 21 March 1984 Notes: I met the three people who are featured in the lower right corner of this collage. It was during a festival that I was involved with in Child's Play Touring Theatre. I do not remember the name of the mime trio. I think they were from France. They were fun, they were fabulous, we all got along famously. Never to meet again, but for a day or two we were all fast friends. I didn't speak any French, so our interactions were mostly non-verbal, but they were a mime troupe after all, so no problem at all.

Old advice could still be good -- if it ever was good. Some old advice does not age well and so we throw it out. Stock market tips from 1980 won't do you much good today. Fashion statements from 1990 probably won't serve you well now. But some old advice holds up well. Take care of others. Tell the truth. Always do your best. Lots of old advice is still great advice. What's your best advice? -- doug smith

The Afterlife -- collage by douglas brent smith, 10 March 1984  

 Test Drive -- collage by douglas brent smith 10 March 1984

something's unclear and i fear it's true who live here? is it me or you? -- douglas brent smith from "One of One: 143 Poems"

  Good Interior Decorating -- collage by douglas brent smith, 10 March 1984

  From the Private Collection of Marvin Tudas -- collage by douglas brent smith, 4 December 1983

  Faster! Faster! -- collage by douglas brent smith, 11 December 1983

 Study for painting -- drawing by douglas brent smith Notes: I did actually paint this study, although it has been lost to the ages somehow, maybe in the fire in Louisville, maybe in one of my many moves. Too bad, it came out much better than this sketch. The window scene was different, featuring a VW beetle. The floor was black and yellow. It's an acquired taste but I really liked it. It was fairly large compared to my usual works, too -- probably 36 x 48 inches. 

  Truncated Legal Territory -- collage by douglas brent smith

  Communication in the Motion Age -- collage by douglas brent smith, 22 March 1984

  Top Hat Dimensions #3 -- sketch by douglas brent smith

  Little Hat -- sketch by douglas brent smith

  Cut the Slack -- collage by douglas brent smith, 14 November, 1983

  Courage Growing -- collage by douglas brent smith, 1984