An Interview with Doug Fraser Hi Doug, we hear motorcycles are your passion, what kind of motorcycle is sitting in your driveway?
Yes, I do have a strong interest in motorcycles. I started riding them at 13 years of age. Since then, I've owned, and rode many different brands. I was riding them while living in New York, and also riding across Canada. There's a purity about riding a motorcycle that still excites me. These days I've been riding a Super Glide, it's a mid level Harley Davidson motorcycle.
Could you tell us more about your art and design background and what made you become an artist and designer?
For me the visual pleasure of the old library, magazine & newsstand, for that matter the printed image was a huge draw. Visually I am intrigued by the single framed image, or subject. I still have that interest of just looking, thinking, and producing. Graphics were my first love. Growing up in a small prairie community the excitement felt from a brightly colored printed image was very enticing. I studied communication arts for four years at the Alberta College of Art & Design in Calgary, Canada. The course was very intense, and broadly based with a mix of developing design skills for use in the graphics industry. I took painting and screen printing classes as well. Next I attended the School of Visual Arts in New York for a masters degree. It was a two year course focused on illustration. My very early years were spent living and working in New York. New York's publishing industry made it a great firsthand continuing education.
Your work is quite unique, can you tell us where your inspiration comes from? What hardware and software are you using?
My work has evolved from a number of changing influences. I've always had an interest in structural aspects of subjects. Mechanical, and architectural themes were definite childhood interests. My Father was a civil engineer, and influences many of my early interests. It was in art college that the abstract qualities of art & design were introduced. I think up till college my thoughts were typically adolescent. I think the combination of art history, theory, and design abstracts opened many doors. Initially in college the two schools of painting really had impact in thinking. The abstract minimal paintings of Ad Rienhardt, Mark Rothko, and the regionalist Thomas Hart Benton, also Diego Rivera. In the background contemporary film too has been an influence. Since then it's grown, and evolved. Today I'm more interested in the abstractions of working. My main software is Adobe Illustrator. I use Photoshop lightly.
How does your job as an artist and designer influence your life? Do you feel that you see things around you differently?
As an artist/designer I do tend to deconstruct the things I observe. I've read some books lately that have affected the way I presently work. I do feel the desire to evolve my work. There are elements that make up what we see, and are in themselves quite abstract, even bizarre. I suppose the term, "transfiguration of the commonplace" sums it up for me.
Where would you like to be with your illustration 5 to 10 years from now?
Well there's a question. I'm still very much enjoy the process, and product of a well executed graphic. Also I have starting to show & sell my own paintings in a gallery. The combination of the two sides tend to feed each other. The digital images I've created recently are where my passion lies. As a digital print they are contemporary in feel. Still the gallery world values the hand painted, I've developed a process that utilizes my digital knowledge with an added development in oils for gallery. In 5 to 10 years I hope to have continued growth.
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