douglas brent smith

  Whatever floats your boat matters. Send yourself on a journey unique to your character, special for your strengths, resilient to your challenges.  My dad once made a canoe. He carved it out of a single piece of wood. He told me that it floated, the way a canoe should, but it leaned to one side. I never got in that canoe but I did see it. It's a gift to be able to make things out of wood, even if the first time you try it comes out a little wabi sabi. Terra Cotta - collage by Douglas Brent Smith, 1998, from Journal #33, Life In Progress

 One of a series of mostly black and white mixed media/collage pieces with a photo-copy base.  Here's the poem that is on the facing page in the journal: we're not perfect but we are trying trying to get along to talk to touch to see each other's                           point of view we're not perfect but we have a history that is wrapped in strands of perfect moments                         perfect steps                                             perfect strings of perfect love. 23 April 1998 Platform Flyer - mixed media sketch by Douglas Brent Smith, 1998, from Journal #33, Life In Progress.

What is your closest thing to an inner sanctum, a place where you can hide away and be completely yourself? Imagine a text book in living creatively. Here's a page from that book, and like any great textbook, has a little insert for detail. Where is that detail? Somewhere in the rest of the picture. Detail: Inner Sanctum - mixed media sketch by Douglas Brent Smith, 1997, from Journal #32, Secret Change Agent.

  A business call that takes too long. A meeting that's rambling. Waiting for the copy machine. There must have been times when an odd doodle showed up and grew into something collecting, something expressing. Here's an idea -- the next time you reach for your device to idly scroll, instead pick up a pen and some paper and doodle. It does not need to be anything at all. Doodle. Poke it. Prod it. Dress it up in your favorite doll house.  You will not have wasted your time. Think Tank Leakage - collage/mixed media/sketch by douglas brent smith, 1997.  From Journal #32, Secret Change Agent

  Even when I created this collage the source photo, the basis of the scene, is an old photo of a Child's Play performance. That's a distorted Victor Podagrosi in the left corner. I drew the halo because Victor had died about a year earlier than when I made this piece.  It's a fever dream to mash-up some original sketches with an actual CP performance. My world blended so well with that company.  Do you have a group of people you blend with just exactly right? I could feel that from the start with Victor and June and everyone who entered the company contributed to that superb blend.  Scene Change #42, collage, mixed media by doug smith, from Journal #32, Secret Change Agent

  Even when we're lost there is a pattern, discoverable, discernible, mysterious. Are we being led thru that pattern, or are we creating that pattern? How can we know where we're supposed to go if we are supposed to go anywhere. Maybe it's all just happening and we are not responsible for twists, turns, and new lessons to learn. Amazed - mixed media collage by Douglas Brent Smith, 1998, from Journal #33, Life In Progress.

  Globes, at one time, were everywhere. Then, they kept changing. Especially in Africa but also everywhere. Names, boundaries, the "natural order" of the planet kept changing as we kept spinning. It's easy to believe that things are stable, durable, resilient. Instead, motion is the natural order. But, you knew that, didn't you? When was the last time that you saw a globe? slips, trips, and falls - collage by Douglas Brent Smith, 1996

  not the thing - collage by Douglas Brent Smith - 1996 From Journal #31

  Busy Table -- sketch / mixed media by douglas brent smith   

  Face In The Crowd - pen and marker drawing by douglas brent smith, 1989 At the buttom of the drawing you can see the effect of water on the paper. I feel lucky that my journals weren't more severely damaged or even burned completely up in the fire at Elm Street. I spent hours afterwards drying them out in the sun on a trampoline, carefully turning page by page and giving each page some drying time. This is from journal #26. I was up to journal #41 at the time. Fortunately, not all of them were drenched.  

  Mineral Wealth - River Gold - drawing by douglas brent smith, 1989 This is an imaginary (so far) record album cover, drawn back when album covers still mattered, when they still helped to sell recordings, when they represented additional enjoyment for the music. I never had a band named Mineral Wealth, but I think it's a great name for a band and the name of the album, "River Gold" makes it seem like a greatest hits collection. Imagine that. Greatest Hits albums were far more important in 1989 than they are at the moment when streaming one song at a time is much more common. In a way, it's all one continuous "greatest hits" parade. The colors in this sketch were effected by water damage to the journal that occurred during the fire on Elm Street in 2008. A lot more than this whimsical picture was harmed in that fire. - dbS - 

Egg On A Walk At Koranda Palace - mixed media sketch by douglas brent smith, 26 December 1987  

  A Formal Evening -- mixed media sketch by douglas brent smith

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

  With Greater Detail - mixed media by douglas brent smith

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

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

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

  And Furthermore She Said -- mixed media by douglas brent smith, 1983

  The People We Met At The Drive-In -- mixed media sketch by douglas brent smith, 1983