About Doug
I came to leather a short while ago.
Being fine arts educated, I had a bit of an arms length approach to the subject. However, when I visited the Tandy Leather store here in town I was struck by all the possibilities that leather actually had to offer. I started remembering watching shoemakers in India making and repairing shoes often with only an attache case of tools and equipment. Their skills were remarkable. So I began my foray into leather.
I was born in India in 1950.
My father, the child of missionaries, had grown up in India and was back doing a thesis on local Indian government. Over the next 19 years we traveled between India and the USA several times. In 1964 we drove from India to Holland, camping along the way. After high school graduation I flew East with friends visiting Bangkok and Japan. Back in the States I went to a small liberal arts college where I was most comfortable in the art and anthropology departments. I had originally wanted to be a pilot but medical complications made that impossible so I came to the notion that the flights I would embark on would have to be those of imagination and mystery. Then there was a family, two kids, many moves, time spent making artwork, fixing computers, more artwork, family split up, massage therapy, laser therapy and finally leather work which came about because of an interest in traditional mystic teachings.
Leather work has afforded me an opportunity to bring together a variety of things I love to do.
The process and activity of designing and making things has always been an interest. In grade school it was airplanes and I spent much time in our workshop making various things including a group of electric guitars with parts I had ordered from Germany. In shop we were required to do mechanical drawings. I was never very good at it then but that didn’t dampen my enthusiasm for the process. Later on, I did a drawing for a renovation which was accurate enough that I counted the pieces of lumber I needed, added 10% and had nothing more than a bunch of 4 to 8 inch scraps left over.
I have always liked to do things that are new to me, always had the notion that I could do anything. I think Mom and Dad figured heavily in that, so having something to do that requires some sort of new approach, new understanding is definitely a plus.
The tactile aspect of working with leather is also appealing and the sense of respect for the animals who have provided this give away is ever present. Making the forms to work the leather around requires some woodworking knowledge and so I get to utilize that skill as well. The planning of the steps to take can be quite challenging with the pleasure of creating a resolved puzzle. And this all happens before even cutting any leather. Sharpening tools, keeping a clean and neat workspace, staying healthy by using masks and good ventilation, all these things appeal to me, as are the actual choice of the leather, how to cut a hide efficiently and economically to mitering the corners and finishing the edges, on and on.
Then there’s carving and finishing. I love outline and the play of planes and textures and low relief. I remember as a sixth grader trying to carve jousters on horses in low relief on soft pine bark, I was a bit too heavy handed for the materials in those days but I sure did give it a good try! Then after carving, and even without it there’s painting and staining which opens up another new dimension of possibilities which appeal to my artistic senses. So to date I have only scratched the surface of the infinity of possibilities I know that exist. I don’t think I’ll have to worry about being 75 and making ashtrays from lumps of mud…
The Sweet Medicine SunDance Path.
My interest in the Sweet Medicine SunDance Path, SMSDP, originally started back in the 60s and 70s from anthropology classes and from reading books by Carlos Castaneda and Lame Deer although at that time I did not know of the path itself. Lame Deer was a Sioux Medicine man and Carlos was an anthropologist turned shaman apprentice. The SMSDP is very close to what Carlos was practicing and his teachers’ associate is the Grandfather of this path. What I can say about these teachings, and what engages my mind, is that the whole understanding of existence and reality has been organized into circles, shields as they are often called. Each circle or shield maintains consistent attributes in its directions of North, South, East, West, North East, South East, and so on. Knowledge is interlinked and interrelated in this way. The system was oral and so had to be spoken and remembered, a skill that most of us no longer possess in a fundamental way. All things that I know of are related to the shields and are incorporated in them. It seems that with time, exposure and use, the shields seem to come alive within one and spin one into new knowings. My small exposure to fractals makes me think that this system is very fractal like in nature, as I understand it. So, the SMSDP is where I am flying with mystery, magic and my imagination.
The Star Maiden’s Circle,
or SMC, has given me a venue for the desire to make precise and exacting artworks. It is one of the main drivers and keys to using the information organized onto shields. This plus a few other tidbits of teachings has led me to making a number pictures in gouache and pencil. The artworks can be used as aids in visualizing some types of information and analysis process without having to go to more detailed notes. (Notice the dreaded note taking concept.) There is a nice section of SMCs in the art gallery.
For more information on the Sweet Medicine SunDance Path or the Star Maiden’s Circle you can follow the link on the “Links” page.
