Doug Does Shameless Self Promotion for this Saturday's Art Show at La Pena
                                                                                                     
"In my twenty-two years of living and making art in Berkeley, only three of my pieces have been collected by the University of California--Bears Love Acorns, The Big Game and Degrees of Advancing. All were confiscated by the UC police during raids on the historic Save the Oaks tree-sit and never returned".
                                                                                     Doug Minkler

Come see all three confiscated images, plus the rejected American Psychological Association Torture Conference poster and the banned in Berkeley Tolstoy Peace Conference print.

My art show, 30 Yrs of New Work, opens on April 2nd. The reception is scheduled for Saturday April 17th, 4-6 p.m at the La Pena Cultural Center, 3105 Shattuck Avenue, Berkeley ca.  I hope that I will see you then, if not, the work will be on exhibit for one month between April 2 and May 1.

In addition there will be several just-completed posters as well as several prints from the 60's and 70's that have never been shown.  (I guess I should have titled the show 40 Years of New Work.)   The viewing hours for the show at the Cafe and Lobby areas are:

Wednesday & Thursday:  5:30 - 9:30 p.m.
Fridays:  11 a.m. - 10:30 p.m.
Saturdays: 11 a.m. - 10:30 p.m.
Sundays: 11 a.m. - 9:30 p.m.

Please excuse any multiple sends.

Introduction to 60's and 70's section of the show

Most of the art I created in the 60's did not reflect my developing political consciousness, but, while attending Foothill Community College, in 1969, I did receive an award for a ceramic bust depicting my Napalm-burned head, complete with my singed draft card.  I dropped out of Foothill in protest to the unfair practice of allowing upper and middle class students a free pass out of the war while forcing working class young people into military service in Vietnam.

Some of the work shown here was created in the 70's at California State University, East Bay (formerly, Hayward State) where I studied art for a year and a half.  One semester short of graduating, I felt compelled to focus on art full-time so I dropped out of college and used my student loan money to continue my art education through self-directed "home-schooling."  After the student loan money ran out, I began a variety of industrial jobs to support my family and purchase art supplies for my paintings.  I soon found myself fighting for worker rights by participating in contract negotiations, union organizing and strikes.  In 1979, after eight years of industrial work, and its concomitant exposure to toxic chemicals, I returned to the art department at Hayward State to complete my BA degree in the hope of getting a job teaching art.  I only had two remaining courses: Advanced Painting and Advanced Printmaking.  The instructor fo r the painting class (after delivering a passionate lecture about artistic freedom) informed me that my work was propaganda - not art - and it had no place in the university.  The instructor for the printmaking class told me that if he gave me credit for the work I was proposing for my independent study credits, his non-citizen status in the U.S. would be put at risk.  I dropped out of college for the third and last time.

In 1972, despite my non-student status, Gordon Holler, my former Foothill College art instructor, was kind enough to provide me with a silk-screen and squeegee, along with excellent printing instruction.  My first silk-screen poster was titled Stop War Recruiters in Mt. View (shown here).  Coincidentally, soon after the poster was distributed, the recruiter's office was burned to the ground.  The lessons from my 60's and 70's draft-dogging and union-organizing days continue to guide my work today.