Douglas Pierre Baulos

 
 

Douglas Pierre Baulos

Studio Location:: Irondale Alabama

Title of Piece: 1. Days are Shadows
2. Stars are holes in the floor of heaven

Materials Used: I grow Persicaria tinctoria. I use the sukumo fermentation method. My dye garden is located at the University of Alabama at BIrmingham. I have a dye studio and also grow some plants at my residence.

Price: N.F.S.

Primary Techniques: I used several types of paste resist, cyanotype toning, and some fold and sewing resists in my work. I often combine anthotypes and silkscreen on cloth that is then over dyed in indigo.

Type of Vat: Iron

Other Applications:

Artist Bio: Douglas Pierre Baulos was born in Springfield, Illinois. In 1990, they received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. In 1993, they received a Master of Fine Arts from the University of New Orleans. Doug is currently the Assistant Professor of Drawing, Book arts and Hybrid Materials at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Their works have been exhibited/published both nationally and internationally. Current works are explorations (visual) and meditations (poetry) centering on ideas of spirituality, love, death, shelter, and hope.

Artist Statement about Piece: These pieces navigate my interests in Natural Dyes, Alabama biodiversity, extinction of species, and vulnerability risks among the LGBTQI community. Lately, my cloth stories explore how I and many other queer and non-binary artists use the natural world to navigate difficult feelings and often are still much more prone to have mental illness issues and suicidal thoughts. In my work the content of the objects I create can be literal (record, map) or figurative (playful) as an investigation. The cloth stories I make are places to sort ideas and information, but also function as a safe - place for true and frank conversation about my identity and movement through the world. A consistent objective of my work is seeking to simultaneous link my outer experience in the natural world with the complicated feelings of my inner experience as a queer artist. I find creating paper, cloth, and all materials from “scratch” for most of my work allows me to create work that is this can confront problems which other types of materials sourcing might not be able to fully have space for my ideas and feelings. I hope that as an artist that is willing to ask complicated questions, I can inhabit a vital role simply by looking at a problem from an innovative angle. By focusing on the connections where scientific understanding, emotional experience, and diverse realities exist, I hope to inspire wonder and reverence for the natural world. As a queer artist, I hope to create unorthodox, fugitive, and liminal works and experiences that when exhibited showcase my research into mortality, anatomy, and shelter. Growing up queer in Alabama, I sacrificed authenticity to minimize humiliation and prejudice. As an artist and teacher, I try to dive as deep as possible into my technical and conceptual interests. As a maker, I make works that hope to instill joy and fragile exultation at the beauty of the world, which can for queer people be an act of resistance.