Sunday, 26 March 2023

If my art has nothing to do with people's pain and sorrow, what is 'art' for? Chinese contemporary artist, documentarian, and activist Ai Weiwei

 

Constable Daniel Woodall Funeral Procession, 2015

Last Sunday of September 2021, Blue Tree, On Guard for Thee

2017, She Smiles after all that...
All Flowers Matter
2001-2012, PR, Posters & Theatre Sets
2013, 9 Afghan boys gathering firewood, 911
2014, Return to Jasper, Lake Maligne 1924, (1979)
2015, The Judge & Poet, We First Nations, Metis, and Inuit
2016, Fire and Rain art project, Alberta Wildfires and Flooding
2017, Not a Bystander art project to Anger, Violence, and Bullying
2018, The Status versus Motion art project, Alberta Politics, and Media
2019, More Circles than Squares, Political, Social & Environmental Extremes
2020, Freedom to Express and Listen, Defending my Individual Rights & Freedoms
2021, The Misty HeArt project, Art Show and Tell, Share and Listen!
2022, Abstracts of Light & Shadows, Good Dog, Bad Dog, Wolf or Bear?
Listen to my heArt beat... 2023, The Last of Me Painting, Poetry, Song & Dance

Outsider, Community, Intuitive Art



Thursday, 23 March 2023


Great meeting, on a great day. Happy bday Aaron! - Shayne


2022, Black Swan, Bad Dog 


The city's security cat, the rat, and the cheese

2023-03-23, Painter's notes, Edmonton Raven News: QuickDrawn Conclusions sketched today inside Edmonton City Hall. My wife Sarah and I, while on the way to school this morning passed a homeless man behind Joey Bell Tower restaurant, in downtown Edmonton and heard him say to himself next to a dumpster with his grocery cart in hand "Ladies and Gentlemen, We've Hit the Jackpot!

Wednesday, 22 March 2023

March 22, 2020, Painter's notes: After taking this photo today I heard a friendly voice behind me say "Hey Doug... stay healthy!" I turned & looked... and said "Hey, Jason Kenney, good to see you!" He was soon gone and I thought to myself I should have said "Stay healthy too Premier, you're doing a great job!" Today I completed "Wear red as we go marching - Rome is burning" Day 1001 freely expressing art in the streets and public squares of Edmonton since March 2015

Thank you and your family, for your public service. 

2023-03-22, Tweet: This is my last full day at the legislature. I have been honoured to serve you here for 8 years. Thank you to all my colleagues on both sides for your contributions to our province and to my life. Leela Aheer. MLA for Chestermere-Strathmore. Honoured to be the Former Minister of Culture, Multiculturalism and the Status of Women. Treaty 7, Métis Region 3.

 

Happy first day of spring begins for me after completing 10 years of art projects, learning how to paint again after 10 years of not... 2023, Listen to my heArt beat marks the beginning of a new chapter in life that includes outdoor painting, song, poetry, and dance.

Like Notre Dame, We Will Rise Better and Stronger - Marg McCuaig-Boyd 

Tuesday, 21 March 2023

Painter's Notes, Fire & Rain art project, Alberta wildfires and floods, June 19, 2016, Edmonton: First paint strokes are added to my 8th. Fire and Rain painting titled Queen Elizabeth Park Wildfire, 6 weeks after a fire burned through the park. Today I hiked 10 kilometers carrying my easel and backpack through a thunderstorm, then later during hot windy conditions. The thick layers of compost leaves had burned entirely away leaving rich topsoil with new green saplings poking through the ground. The bark along the trunks of the trees was blackened but not enough to kill the trees. Fire and Rain art project.

Gift to Julie and Lorne

January 25, 2016 - First Fire and Rain painting
Painted next to the ice rink by Edmonton City Hall

Art is freedom

Monday, 20 March 2023

2023-03-20, Painter's notes: Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Salma Lakhani shared memories of her early life inside Edmonton City Hall, coming to Canada and being appointed as Canada's first Muslim woman, born in Uganda. I sent several messages of delight and encouragement from Salma's words from City Hall to my wife Sarah, via iPhone, while she was between classes at McEwan University. Salma was questioned, with all women often experiencing self-doubt, what was it like for her when she was asked to be head of state? She answered "Give yourself a chance - You have to believe in yourself - don't let anyone mold you! Sarah responded with a 'Liked' and said she was going to grab a coffee and sit in the sun before History.


2021, Mary Simon and the Orange Flower, community, painted
facing the Alberta Legislature behind the Service Through Christ.
The Painter, 68, Richard Douglas Brinkman born in Toronto, on November 6, 1954, currently resides in downtown Edmonton: I started expressing my creative self as a kid with a box of crayons on my parents' basement walls and inside the pages of my grandfather's leather-bound encyclopedia collection. So my parents began to supply me with a steady stream of paper and pencils with which to draw and expand my creativity. In secondary school, I studied commercial art and printing and took extra courses to learn photography and produce short video features. As a teenager, I helped my high school sweetheart get pregnant, a son, out of wedlock, so I needed to drop out of school to find a job. I worked in trade and became a journeyman pressman printing newspapers, magazines, and paperback books. In my twenties I learned to fly, earning a private pilot's license, and moved to Edmonton, Alberta from Toronto, Ontario landing a job at the Edmonton Sun. In my 40s I hiked the West Coast Trail on Vancouver Island 3 times and once to the Rose Spit on Haida Gwaii Island. Living in Edmonton I continued a career as a graphic arts craftsman operating mostly Goss high-speed web offset newspaper printing presses. I went through two failed marriages over the years and have found love with the same woman Sarah, together 22 years, this May, 2023. I once volunteered at Walterdale Community Theatre in Old Strathcona, painting sets and doing public relations. I was laid off from my newspaper job in 2013 after 42 years and attempted to start a business Hawkeyi Media Inc, a news media company with a grant from Alberta Works. It failed after losses, so I have since retired and now work full time as a social artist painting, sketching, and creating political cartoons, and continue my work as a Civil Information (Citizen Free Press) Activist going into my 16th year publishing free news in my community. It was after losing my job that I started painting about the news stories happening locally in Alberta. My painting is a hobby and I consider myself an outsider artist, self-taught lacking formal training in the find arts. I don't sell my paintings, but like sharing the stories behind my paintings. I paint because I'm free and I give my art and paintings away freely. Its my gift to share with others in my family and community. I have 3 sons, a daughter and 2 grandkids. Continued

Self Portrait, 2016, City Hall Art Show & Tell