I'm still on the wrong side of capitalism

Art is my freedom

July 10, 2014 Sitting on a red chair inside the Art Gallery of Alberta holding my new painting in oils 'Frozen Maligne Lake' Jasper National Park. I spent a lot of time inside the AGA drawing, honing my creative skills and rebuilding my confidence to paint again.

1924-2014 art project: Lawren Harris and A.Y. Jackson traveled from Ontario to Alberta, Jasper to paint. 1924 marked the opening of the (AGA) Art Gallery of Alberta. July 10, 2014 sketch study/ 2020 freedom to Express & Listen

2020-07-10 My wife Sarah posted this on Facebook 7 years ago today saying 'This is you sweetie' I have found a freedom that cannot be bought or sold and that's my freedom to create art and share my art with others. I may be hard pressed to sell my paintings for risk of losing my hard fought freedom, 32 days protesting both Provincial and Municipal Governments. The last painting I sold was December 2015, a mountain scene I painted on location inside Jasper National park on a frozen Maligne Lake. The Alberta Government tried banning me from freely expressing myself with art 3 times the following year 2016 Fire and Rain art project and was threatened police action from the city of Edmonton manager for showing a single painting of the Fort McMurray wildfire in front of City Hall on New Years Eve. I've sold one painting since 'freedom Flowers' to a cafe owner $30, I used later to buy artist supplies when money was tight.

“Two things form the bedrock of any open society — freedom of expression and rule of law. If you don’t have those things, you don’t have a free country." - Salman Rushdie. Freely expressing art outdoors in the streets & public squares of Edmonton since March 30, 2015

Active Citizenship, Free News Sharing & Social Artistry. Doug Brinkman. Home page.

Influencers 

Without debate, without criticism, no Administration and no country can succeed--and no republic can survive. That is why the Athenian lawmaker Solon decreed it a crime for any citizen to shrink from controversy. John F. Kennedy. Kennedy often refeired to by the initials JFK and Jack, was an American politician who served as the 35th President of the United States from January 1961 until his assassination in November 1963. Kennedy served at the height of the Cold War, and the majority of his work as president concerned relations with the Soviet Union and Cuba. 

The Alberta Legislature has no dome.

In a decaying society, art, if it is truthful, must also reflect decay. And unless it wants to break faith with its social function, art must show the world as changeable. And help to change it. Ernst Fischer. Fischer was a Bohemian-born Austrian journalist, writer and politician.Wikipedia 

Art is the beginning of vision into the realm of eternal life. - Lawren Harris. Harris best known as a member of the Group of Seven who pioneered a distinctly Canadian painting style in the early twentieth century. A. Y. Jackson has been quoted as saying that Harris provided the stimulus for the Group of Seven. During the 1920s, Harris' works became more abstract and simplified, especially his stark landscapes of the Canadian north and Arctic. He also stopped signing and dating his works so that people would judge his works on their own merit and not by the artist or when they were painted. Wikipedia 

Intuitive, outsider art

 Trouble maker, the coming storm 2017-2019.

From the Alberta Legislature grounds 'Trouble maker, the coming storm' by Doug Brinkman, 20"x16" Acrylic. Painted easterly by the rose gardens outside NDP Premier Rachel Notley's office in the fall of 2017. Completed northerly from UCP Premier Jason Kenney's offices by the tobacco gardens summer 2019. The Projects: 2017 Not a bystander art project: Anger Violence and Bullying. 2019 More Circles than Squares art project: Alberta Environment, Social and Political Climate Extremes.

January 2016, next to the Edmonton City Hall ice rink, painting my first of 24 Fire and Rain art project paintings. 2016 Fire and Rain art project was banned 3 times by Alberta Government officials and threatened police action by a City of Edmonton Manager on new years eve in front of City Hall. 

If critics say your work stinks it's because they want it to stink and they can make it stink by scaring you into conformity with their comfortable little standards. Standards so low that they can no longer be considered "dangerous" but set in place in their compartmental understandings.― Jack Kerouac. Kerouac is considered a literary iconoclast and, alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, a pioneer of the Beat Generation. Wikipedia

 2016 Fire and Rain Circles and Squares by Doug Brinkman. Humans, Next generation of fossil fuels. 

"Mother Earth is ready to cleanse. The natural shape is a circle, our cells are a circle, stars are a circle, the sun, the moon, the earth. The mothers womb is a circle... I don't believe we should be living in these squares." - Edmonton River Valley, Chief No Tribe, September 13, 2016.

U R B A N   R E N E W A L  

Be positive. The role of art is to inspire hope and find solutions. It should be used for healing. 2017 Not a Bystander art project survey. Main Gallery

Chicago, blessed the Canadians in their midst

Last night in #Chicago, Exploring July 5-8, 2019, we ate in China town. That cab driver got an earful from my wife Sarah when he tried to tell us that neighborhood was terrible and too far to drive out to... We took the red train back to the hotel. “Let me tell you something. I’m from Chicago. I don’t break.” ―Barack Obama

outside wearing my O Canada t-shirt

Navy Pier, windy city #Chicago exploring July 5-8, 2019 (last day) As a tear wells up in my eye, I'm so grateful we made it to Chicago last year, inspired by it's museums and beautiful people. “Blessed are the people of Chicago, and blessed the strangers in their midst, it is honest, and it is abundant.” James

Chicago Exploring July 5-8 2019, 1 AM Sarah went to bed. I went out looking for a 7-11 as everything was closed inside our Downtown Sheraton Grand./CRACK 3 black men running away while a 4th big black guy lay on the road twitching in a pool of blood by the hotel #187 Sketch Study

Alberta Legislature 2020-07-08: I'm halfway through my 2020 Freedom to Express & Listen art project, inspired while #Chicago Exploring July 5-8, 2019. I hope by the end of the year I'll be able to answer the Sgt.-At-Arm's question he asked me spring 2019 "Is this an honourable place?"

 Painting, POSTERS and Pickets 

Welcome Back Alberta Art Gallery of Alberta

2020-06-29 "Art is made for people to react." Happy the Art Gallery of Alberta has reopened. This paint study I did inside the AGA now hangs in a New York law office. I met the N.Y. based lawyer during one of my Alberta Legislature outdoor art shows & tell. Being Canadian the lawyer said he missed the prairie life, small towns and growing up in Western Canada. I handed him the painting he wanted to buy (no sale) & said enjoy it, it belongs to you. Painting is a hobby for me and part of the joy is meeting folks and sharing the stories behind my work. Most paintings I give away or paint over for future art projects. Enjoy your freedoms, thank a veteran. Doug Brinkman

July 2, 2020, My first day back sketch studying inside the Art Gallery of Alberta. 

Today's AGA Art Gallery of Alberta 50 minute/sketch study/ Corel draw altered, I'll just call #FlowerPower, inspired by Bruno Canadien and Niki Little's combined installation GIFT.

#ShameTheMan, Indigenous month

Solstice Week Painting, 2020

Shame/ridicule pole used for public ridicule are usually called shame poles, and were created to embarrass individuals or groups for their unpaid debts or when they did something wrong. The poles are often placed in prominent locations and removed after the debt is paid or the wrong is corrected. Wikipedia.

Red Woman in Veterans Park 

2020-06-22 This young lady is the inspiration behind my Solstice 2020 week painting '#ShameTheMan with love' Totem. When she asked me to buy her a cell phone, give money but I had no chance, she said give her something so I gave her my poster and a pen to draw on the back with. I shared her story with my (Hon) friend Rick Wilson, Minister of indigenous relations and his chief of staff who is First nations. He said we have to help her... I met Jenna in Veterans park last Friday crawling in the dirt wearing no top. While painting over the weekend I was surrounded each day by young men and women graduates in beautiful dresses and suits for graduation pictures. Quite the contrast to Jenna (Not her real name) Sunday was indigenous Day.

2020-06-20 Summer Solstice '#ShameTheMan with love' totem. 

'#ShameTheMan with love' (Backside) 
'Sunset, getting dark' (Front side)

2020-06-20: Completed backside '#ShameTheMan (with love)' Urban art renewal paint over the original 2015 'River valley trail' (below). I decided to make a title change from 'Shame TheMan with Love (totem)' to 'Sunset, getting dark' during the week, leading up to solstice. 

 

Art Show and Tell during Solstice week on the Alberta Legislature grounds.

Dawn Marie is an amazing artist. I was honoured to meet and interview her during the 2014 WORKS FESTIVAL. So inspired by her work I volunteered all week in her tent, giving out fidget stones to folks visiting her display. Since then I decided to give away fidget stones at will during my outdoor art shows and tell. 

Doug's YouTube Channel

Is the Alberta Legislature an honourable place,

or am I in the wrong place? 

2020 Freedom to Express and Listen art project

Part of my mission behind the 2020 social art project is to answer the question the Sgt-At-Arms posed to me outside the Alberta Legislature assembly June 2019 "is the Alberta Legislature an honourable place?" He asked me this question in a very aggressive way, after he and his staff removed me from the assembly's public gallery, banning me from wearing a t-shirt that I created with art with words that read "Pipelines, Alberta United, A Nation Divided" The ban of my t-shirt was after the Speaker received a complaint from the press gallery.

"In drawing, one must look for or suspect that there is more than is casually seen." George Bridgman

Art Is Freedom

Professional Native Indian Artists Inc.

Art Gallery of Alberta sketch studies by Doug Brinkman

"Photography is an immediate reaction, drawing is a meditation." 

Henri Cartier-Bresson

"Drawing is the artist's most direct and spontaneous expression, a species of writing: it reveals, better than does painting, his true personality." 

Edgar Degas

"In drawing, one must look for or suspect that there is more than is casually seen."  

George Bridgman

“I draw like other people bite their nails.”  

Pablo Picasso

Art is Freedom

2016 Fire and Rain art project Logo by Doug Brinkman. Logo inspired from the sketch studies I did of the GROUP OF SEVEN: Janvier, Ray, Morrisseau, Odjig, Sanchez, Beardy and Cobiness. Art bLog.

The Professional Native Indian Artists Incorporation (PNIAI), informally known as the Indian Group of Seven, was a group of First Nations artists from Canada, with one from the United States. Founded in November 1973, the they were Indigenous painters who exhibited in the larger art world. The nickname is an allusion to the Group of Seven, a Euro-Canadian group of painters from the early 20th century. Wikipedia

"I see buffalo"- Kerra, Special K

'Be like the buffalo' - Jason Kenney.

Buffalo Eye, 20-20 Vision

April 18, 2020 : This is Kerra, a carpenter in her 40s from Drayton Valley. Kerra's street name is Special K, homeless living on the streets of Edmonton, Kerra went to the same high school where Drayton Valley UCP MLA Mark Smith taught in high school. She kept me company the whole time as I painted over the Walterdale Bridge art project, now named "Buffalo Eye" thanks to Kerra who said she sees a buffalo in my painting. She got out some paper from her pack and began to draw while I painted. Early this week Premier Kenney said as Albertans we must try to be like the buffalo herds, staying close together in our communities, helping each other while facing today's adversities of COVID19 and Canada's failing economy.

YouTube: "Buffalo Eye, 20-20 Vision" was painted over two other paintings joined together with 3 staples showing the old Walterdale bridge and the construction of the new Walterdale bridge. 2020 Freedom to Express and Listen.

2020-04-18 I painted over the Walterdale Bridge art project, now named "Buffalo Eye" thanks to Kerra who said she sees a buffalo in my painting. She got out some paper from her backpack and began to draw while I painted. This is Special K rummaging through the garbage after we said goodbye

If I continue to remain healthy & COVID19 free, I'll be freely expressing my art outdoors on the Alberta Legislature grounds and secret hiding places in the river valley in the coming days, while practising Social Distancing.

2020-06-07  Seven Years ago today June 7, 2017: I met my barefooted friend for the 3rd time in the river valley today while out hiking the trails. His beard has grown twice as long since the last time we met which was early last fall I think. He was clearing away some shrubs the city had cut and left behind so the tall grass underneath could get some air and light. We talked for awhile... probably over an hour - his mind is sharp as a whip as he remembered me well - like two old friends. I still don't know his name but we call each other friend. We both love the river valley and the nature that surrounds us. This is a drawing from memory of my friend first time we met early 2014. Bare footed then he was just staring at the sun setting when we first met along the banks of the North Saskatchewan.

River Valley Joe

Front: River Valley Joe, ANARCHY 2017, 2019

Back: Be like the buffalo, Deja vu, 2020-05-27

'Ere on the side of caution when you're dealing with the future unknown.'

"Be like the buffalo"- Jason Kenney 2020-06-01 

Thank you Rachel Notley 'STOP!'

on location Alberta Legislature grounds, flowering shrub, second painting in 3 years, I would do more like this except this bush only bears flowers for a week every 3 years. Titled 'STOP!' Take in the moment. 2020 Freedom to Express and Listen art project. 2020-06-02 Update. The painting has found a new home with the Honourable Leader of Her Majesty's Official Opposition Rachel Notley. A token of my appreciation, her pubic service to Alberta.  

To Doug Brinkman May 20, 2015  

Re-Coffee with MP Linda Duncan  

Rossdale Community Hall meeting.

I too was at the meeting tonight and as a Muslim woman was appalled that you were asked to leave. This was obviously not a women’s only event and no woman there (Muslim or not) should have felt threatened by your (or any male) presence. Those of us who choose to cover in front of men were covered and those who choose not to sit by or speak to men had plenty of opportunity to exercise their right by sitting elsewhere. As a mother of three sons I teach my boys to stand up for all woman and their rights, how would they do this if we alienated them from the issues that affect woman? I do not know the reasons the one person had asked you to be removed and I cannot judge, but I am very sorry you had to go through this! I hope this event does not stop you from attending future events or impression you to think Muslim woman are closed minded or unapproachable to discuss important matters such as our freedoms. 
Sadaf