We recently connected with Doug Welsh and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Doug, thanks for joining us today. Do you think your parents have had a meaningful impact on you and your journey?

I recently presented my work at the Independent Art Fair in NYC with F (and Adam Marnie), alongside artists blvxmth and Jen Fisher. My partner, Mitch Pengra, parents, sister, aunts, uncles, cousins and friends (20 people in total) flew in from NY, NJ, MA, CT, TX, OR and CA to celebrate this pivotal moment in my art career. A few of them even bought paintings from the gallery. It’s in moments like these that I realize the unique privilege of my familial circumstances. My family’s unwavering support has enabled me to believe in myself as an artist. My parents always encouraged my creative proclivities, signing me up for art classes when I was a kid and taking me to art museums around the world. When I was 16, my sister motivated me to attend the Visual Art Summer Intensive at Boston University, an experience that led me to pursue an art degree from Bates College and an MFA in painting from University of Houston. My parents and sister have collected more of my work than anyone else in the world, which they proudly display in their homes. I would not be where I am at now as an artist, without the incredible support from my family. I know how rare that is, and it’s part of what drives me to support other artists, to show up for them, share ideas, organize exhibitions, and write about their work.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

In my first year of college I befriended several students who felt similarly dismayed by the lack of a visible art presence on campus. Rather than wait around, we created The Arts House, a space for students in visual arts, creative writing, music, dance, theatre and film to live, create work, share ideas, and organize campus wide arts experiences, such as art exhibitions, poetry readings and concerts. I loved seeing a need and finding creative solutions within a community effort. That experience was like planting a seed, and it drives my mission and purpose as an artist. In my second year of grad school the pandemic shut down artist residency programs across the world. In response, my friend Liz Gates and I co-founded the Elgin Street Summer Intensive, a program that supports University of Houston MFA artists in the continuation of their work, providing studio visits with leading local artists, trips to local artist-run, non-profit, and commercial art spaces, studio time, workshops, and a culminating group exhibition. Now in its fourth year, the program continues under the leadership of current UH MFA artists Maddie Casagranda and Jennifer Marion. These ideas of not waiting for permission and creating collectively inform my work as a painter, art writer, educator and community builder.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Navigating the world with music as my companion, I listen to one song on loop until a painting is complete. My ongoing body of work – Life Raft – is ritualistic and anchoring. I embrace a philosophy of stability and harmony in my life, my practice, and as a guiding compositional strategy within the paintings themselves. The color and spatial relationships in my paintings can be lyrical, harmonious, disruptive, angsty, synchronized, tumultuous or tenuous, depending on my state of mind. Ultimately, I seek balance in the interaction of these elements within my paintings, and within myself. Life Raft is what keeps me afloat.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

This makes me think of Forrest Bess, one of my all time greatest influences. He was a hermitic and brilliant painter who lived and worked as a bait fisherman in Bay City, TX and painted his visions / hallucinations. Yet he and showed with Betty Parsons, one of the leading NYC art dealers, and maintained correspondence with Meyer Schapiro and Carl Jung. A total enigma, he lived life on his terms and in his own way. I think about that a lot, the loneliness, the conviction, and the freedom he must have felt. That is the greatest gift of being an artist.

Contact Info:

• Website: douglaswelsh.com
• Instagram: dpw_art

Image Credits
Tom Dubrock