Artist Statement

It is not an easy question to answer…”what are these paintings about?” While making them I’m thinking about life, other artists, my childhood, and family.  My thoughts are broad and not rooted in any particular journey. These works did begin during a period of personal transformation and, for the time being, that is where I begin. I have always had an insatiable curiosity for everything all the time, and sometimes all at once, often to my own detriment.

I am fascinated by things and have always seen beauty in whatever I choose to investigate; cased ball bearings, petrified wood, tadpoles, bridges…it never seems to matter what it is but rather what it makes me feel.

It is easy to draw reference from art history as it may relate to the subject, or a device that is used for effect, or to relay one’s thoughts on the art world or politics or any other highly charged discourse.  I seem always to return to “what does this make me feel”.

It is impossible for me not to imagine the people who engaged with these objects.  The “trolley” inspires a sense of fragility, of isolation and fortitude.  To me, the “trolley” is anthropomorphic.  I experience it as if it were alive.  I imagine it as the subject of one of Velasquez’ famous head to toe portraits, or works by Manet, Marcel Duchamp or Andy Warhol.

None of the subjects of this current exploration have been staged.  They are all as they were when they drew my attention.  In an effort to celebrate them, or present them as an artifact of urban archaeology, I chose to separate them from the “noise”, so as to witness them in stillness and in peace.

As I have said, these works began during an intensely personal transformation.  I wanted to document these found objects and to contemplate their role in the world and their usefulness.  I did the same of myself.  Transformation of all things is inevitable.  I pose the questions – is it beautiful.. does it have more to give?

David Leigh MacDougall

email: [email protected]
social: @davidleighmacdougall