Douglas E. Taylor, an American visual artist and writer of poetry and prose, was born in Oregon in 1956.

After a nurturing high school art education, his college art education began in 1975; Taylor studied illustration and painting at Oregon College of Art in Ashland, Oregon and was trained in representational styles and excelled in painting and illustration, including transparent watercolor, oil painting and acrylic painting.

The summer of 1986, he studied at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, Maryland. This East Coast experience was enriching and included many museum visits.

Taylor achieved his Master of Fine Arts degree from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri in 1989; participating in a progressive printmaking program at that university, he concentrated on a wide variety of printmaking processes and began to combine them, creating rich layered surfaces on large scale one-of-a-kind prints.  He refers to these as "mixed-process" monoprints.

Before graduate school, Taylor had been producing edition etching prints for seven years. At Washington University he began exploring the image through the rapid progression of the monoprint (unique and one-of-a-kind).

To accommodate his larger print sizes, in 1991, the printmaker built and designed his own motorized etching press with a 30 by 74-inch press bed. Combining numerous printmaking processes in one monoprint is a progressive concept and contributes to the unique qualities that only can be achieved through the rich and subtle or dramatic layers of printmaking. Taylor combines the processes of etching, including nonacid techniques, several forms of relief printing, collagraph, dry-point, photocopy transfer, monotype and offset counter proofs.  See the bottom of the Original Mixed-Process Printmaking page for descriptions and definitions of various printmaking processes.

At Washington University in St. Louis, he began exploring the image through the rapid progression of the monoprint.

Larger format artworks are done as mixed-media on canvas.  Usually, these tactile artworks integrate layers of collage and acrylic painting. The collage elements are various pieces of his printed images.  These fragments of his printmaking are cut and/or torn into shapes, and then sometimes combined as collage with a variety of Oriental rice papers.

Since 1986, Taylor had been experimenting with iridescent and iridescent interference acrylic paints. These materials can create a magic sense of subtle animation, causing colors to shift and change with the viewer's relationship with the light source and the character and quality of that light. These effects mirror some of the subtle shifts that the artist observes in nature.

"As I have grown older I have realized and appreciated the influence my father has had, on my creative process. My father was a blacksmith and farrier (shoeing of horses).  During my younger life, I watched him encounter situations where the tools he used didn't quite resolve the problem he was dealing with. When he couldn't buy what he needed, he would make it, fabricate it, sometimes from raw materials.  I have admired that creative ability."

Taylor's versatility as an artist has enabled him to teach a wide variety of studio and some academic art courses at the university and college levels from 1982 to 1998. Teaching he found, was another form of creative expression and allowed him to share his unique experiences and processes.

In 1990, Douglas Taylor moved to Lake Tahoe's north shore.  The beautiful alpine lake is truly a blue jewel set in the high Sierra Nevada range on the California and Nevada border at six thousand and two hundred feet above sea level. He was and still is, inspired by the poetic metaphors of nature and his endeavors of a good life as a human being.  He explores innovative aesthetics and formal issues with subjects that relate to nature, woven with symbolism of the human condition. He often writes poetry that accompanies his visual art.

In 1992 he created what became, Vista Gallery, in Tahoe Vista, California. The unique art space and business allowed him to express himself through the creative process of a commercial enterprise operating for more than 17 years. The gallery featured original art by more than thirty accomplished contemporary artists and was a full-service custom picture frame shop. At the time, the art business had the only real view of Lake Tahoe from any gallery that circled the lake.

In December of 2009, he sold Vista Gallery & Framing to fulfill his dream of working as a full-time artist, moving and living in the beautiful Bitterroot Valley of western Montana in early 2010. He shares his life and studio building with his wife and artist, Lisa Cuglietta Taylor. 

An Artist's Education

More details of my artist story
and educational journey…

As a child I found that I could draw and paint well; I had strong representational drawing skills.  As a kid, I was labeled as an "artist". Eventually, I realized that I was not an artist because I could draw and paint well; I discovered I was an artist because I had a need to find ways to best express my ideas and feelings visually.
As an instructor of drawing, I really learned the process of drawing that had mostly been intuitive to me before. I learned about the right and left sides of the brain and how to tap into those when needed. I learned visual languages that allowed me to express things, ideas, concepts, and feelings, that I most often had no words for. Teaching is a way of learning; it requires being able to articulate what needs to be known.

I discovered that I was an artist because I could find numerous ways of expressing myself visually and that creative-productivity was important to me.  I enjoyed using creative tools and my imagination.  It was a part of me and the more I did it, the more individual my art became;  this is what happens when one involves themselves in the process and is productive. Creativity is discovering your uniqueness. In my artistic life journey, my job is to discover my uniqueness, and I also found how similar I am to the rest of humanity. I found things to say, things to explore, and energy to pursue my purpose.

Creativity is discovering your uniqueness.

Oregon College of Art was a very small private commercial art school in Ashland, Oregon.  It had a loose affiliation with Southern Oregon State College.  O.C.A is now defunct;  S.O.S.C is now Southern Oregon State University.  I learned a tremendous foundation for being a professional artist at O.C.A.  The instructors there were all professional accomplished artists in their fields. 

With all good educations, there is a residual education that soaks-in as time goes by and you practice what you didn't realize you knew. Education is what a student makes of it; I discovered this as a student and as an instructor. My educations were an opportunity to open myself up and let all of that stimulation permeate me like paint on an unprimed canvas, permanently stained, tattooed to the heart, haunting my mind.

Teaching is a way of learning; it requires being able to articulate what needs to be known.

My education involved a lot of real-life, and real-work experience. I feel very fortunate to have had taken the opportunity when I did. What I learned at O.C.A., about being a successful professional artist is with me every day. 
I notice the void in many other artists’ professional education and I have heard a common complaint that their education never taught them to be successful artists; the practical business side of their education is often missing. This later inspired me to create a series of Professional Artists Workshops and Talks, that has helped many artists be more successful and be rewarded for their efforts.

While teaching drawing on the university level, I discovered that I really enjoyed teaching and found if I wanted to do it full-time I would need a Master of Fine Arts degree. Until I could get into a program, I enrolled in some graduate-level studio programs in the Summer of 1986, on the east coast at Maryland Institute College of Art, in Baltimore, Maryland. This was a perfect experience and exposure for me. It was liberating, producing challenging art with no commercial value intended; this allowed me more growth; more truth to be revealed, more personal expression to be discovered.

The five years before this summer in Baltimore, I was living in Las Vegas, Nevada, and had been refining techniques in intaglio etching and rich layered pastel drawing. Probably, the most prominent artists in the area at the time were all doing etching: Roy Purcell, Richard Volpe, Brent Thomson, Michael Ireland, and Richard Stanislaus. I stole as much technique as I could from each of them. I started by taking a very thorough class on intaglio etching techniques with Richard Stanislaus.

I was yearning to find my own artistic and personal direction. Until that experience at M.I.C.A., my imagery was much more conventional and commercially safe. Ironically, I was surprised and delighted that my more challenging imagery produced that summer in Baltimore was even more attractive and appreciated by my collectors.

I discovered the energy that I put into my art, with the intention of doing the best I can do and doing it for the greater universal goodness of doing it…that energy could be felt! Sincerity, truth, and acknowledging the mystery are powerful. I was to discover even more in graduate school during that educational process and how educational it is to take chances, and not “playing it safe”.

Baltimore is very close to so many of our nation’s best and largest east coast art museums.  It was a very rich educational situation; I had opportunities to explore Baltimore, Washington D.C., and New York City museums. Through this intense summer experience, I created a mature portfolio that would be attractive to graduate schools.

I pursued applying to graduate schools.  Somehow, I again was fortunate to be accepted in what I really needed, arguably the most progressive printmaking program in the United States.  Washington University in St. Louis was another step in my progression that was extremely valuable to me.  This midwest exposure and Ivy League setting was another important experience.  I was exposed to the personality of the Midwest and the sensibilities unique to the region.  My art education was refined by the academic standards and atmosphere the university fostered. I felt very fortunate to share this experience with so many talented students and work with such generous and talented faculty.

Developing Mixed-Process Printmaking

Graduate art school is an opportunity to focus on and refine an artistic direction, a thesis.  The intensity of such a program allows for great productivity, especially in printmaking. Printmaking permits the artist to create an image with many variations and versions, exploring the image in a more rapid way than traditional drawing, painting, or sculpture. 

My art process matured and grew with the creation of "restrictions". I experimented with creating restrictions and rules to my visual art-making.  I discovered that the more I restricted myself, the more creative options I actually had. It forced me to look at solutions differently and in unexpected ways. I decided that if I was to learn the fullness of printmaking and the various processes, I might benefit from restricting all of my solutions to the printmaking process. 

Developing a new process

During graduate school, in order to learn everything I could, to open myself to the most potential of the process, I conformed to my own rules: no hand-coloring or painting over a printed image, no collage used. I would explore printmaking, integrating any mark-making with a printmaking process, even if it was a different printmaking process. I immediately met success with innovations developed through the various processes and combining those processes.

Whatever mark, character of line, surface texture was needed, that was what I used. That usually meant combining collagraph, etching, Linoleum relief printing, wood-cut relief printing, monotype, dry-point (scratched lines on a plate surface), engraving (using specific tools to create a specific character of line), photocopy transfer, and counter-proofing (developed by Edgar Degas: transferring the mirror image of a wet print onto another piece of paper). Click here to see some of my newest images.

Naturally, I started to combine processes and techniques which led to inventions of process and technique I had never seen or heard of before. The images were becoming wholly integrated (visually woven together) because of the overlapping print process. These visually integrated layers contributed to the mystery, which is an important element of my attempts to create interesting art.

Consider how music is layered and how an arrangement is “mixed” and experienced as one exposure that flows over you, through you. Only after close analysis can the listener (or viewer) single out the various sounds and instruments used. There can also be a symphony in visual art and how the layers integrate, especially in printmaking.

In graduate school, I was learning technical finesse and confronting composition challenges with every monoprint ( a one-of-a-kind print). I was able to produce a large quantity of very involved hand-printed artwork.  I termed the phrase, “mixed-process” to describe this new deliberate approach.

Following the process and pushing the process helps the artist develop very individual imagery and technique. Process-oriented artwork develops a distinct identity because no one else will go down that exact creative and technical path.  The process becomes a very personal expression of how the artist works and the results of those efforts can be revealed in the art. This is one reason why artists are creative and innovative; artists produce unique and leading-edge work through their own inspired efforts, usually defined by their unique process.

Building My Own Intaglio Press

In 1991, I completed the construction of my own motorized intaglio printing press.  It was modeled after the large presses I used in graduate school, constructed by Professor Peter Marcus, head of the Printmaking Department at the time.  Designing and building my own press elevated my understanding of the printing process and empowered me with all of the thought, skills, and resolution that go into such a project.  Upon completion and use, I felt accomplished and a genuine printmaker. To print a print with the use of an intaglio press that I built myself is very satisfying as a printmaker.
The finished product was twelve feet long and three feet wide.  That is a tremendous commitment of space, time, and resources.  I used the gears and bushings suggested by Peter Marcus. 

I made modifications to the basic Peter Marcus press constructions he had used at the university and his own studio.  Marcus generously gave me two, twenty-five-inch rollers, which are surplus gravure rolling press rollers.  This size roller could cover most of a large full sheet of printmaking paper (29 to 30 inches) with a few inches on each side bare.  Twenty-five inches would be the largest plate width size I could use.  I made the press bed and press blankets thirty inches wide to accommodate the full-sheet paper or rolls of paper. 

The press bed edges could ride in a slot or rail of steel to help run the bed straight through the press.  The length of the plate is only restricted by my blanket and bed length, currently 74 inches of stainless steel.  If I used a blanket-loop, I would only be restricted by the bed and plate length. 

I use a large sheet of acrylic plexiglass (with beveled edges) over the press bed surface to make cleaning up easier.  Also, templates that indicate plate and paper placement could be placed under the acrylic sheet for the registration of plates and paper. 

The diameter of my two press rollers is eleven and eight inches. Having been originally taught on small presses with small rollers, I felt that the larger diameter roller would provide better service as the top roller, allowing the gradual roller surface to roll up on thick plate edges easier.  This is especially beneficial with thick collagraph, linoleum, and wood-cut or wood-engraved plates I often use. 

As with Marcus' presses, I made mine driven with an electric motor with gear reduced belt and chain system.  This saves valuable space by eliminating a large crank handle or wheel attached to the side of such a huge piece of equipment. The press-bed also has an even, smooth and consistent pass through the rollers, giving the printer the best chance of consistent pressure.

My press is among the largest intaglio etching presses in the state of Montana.

 Using Non-Toxic Printmaking Materials
and Printmaking Without a Press

 A progressive contemporary attitude that enables artists to be exceedingly productive and safer is the use of non-toxic materials.  Printmaking had a very dangerous reputation not that many years ago.  Many of the chemicals were hard to be with and were known to be severe health hazards.  These toxic methods and materials inhibited my own production as well as many of my students.  Through the years many institutions, out of necessity to introduce and retain printmaking students to the wonder of image making, involving printmaking, found safer ways to produce prints.  Important information continues to spread as innovative artists find better ways to perform printmaking methods.

Related to this toxic obstacle is the use of significant equipment to produce fine printmaking.  It was a common complaint of students who wanted to pursue printmaking but did not feel comfortable with investing in a intaglio press and related equipment.  I was asked in 1994 to develop a "pressless" printmaking course for a community college campus extension.  I created a curriculum that focused on non-toxic methods without the use of a press.  The results were amazing and inspired many students to continue with printmaking and art making. 

We used newly developed water-based inks or oil-based inks with vegetable oil clean-up. We produced spectacular results with relief processes of soft-cut rubber plates, softer Linoleum. We experimented with black and white artwork that was scanned into a computer that directed a laser engraver, producing wood relief plates. Most projects were “reduction plate” prints. We also explored monotype techniques without a press.

Students were encouraged to examine other definitions of printmaking and how to push the materials to new directions to develop imagery.  Students experimented with various relief processes, multi-color reduction prints, new forms of monotype, and stencil processes, all produced on a tabletop without a press.  The results were sophisticated and inspired me to integrate some methods into my own art. 

I felt very accomplished as a teacher when several of my students went on to pursue serious careers as artists. One never knows what will come of the seeds that are sown.

Facebook video showing and telling about my basic art process, mixed-media and printmaking, in less than 4 minutes.