Bio
Maggie Douglas is an artist based in Des Moines, Iowa. She graduated from Loras College in Dubuque, Iowa with a BA in Art and Digital Design. She has worked as a graphic designer while developing her art practice. Her body of work consists of abstract, mixed media pieces on paper and canvas as well as murals. She creates as a form of self-guided therapy. Working on art gives her a space to escape reality and focus on something outside herself. Her pieces are inspired by the details found in the natural world. Her work has been shown throughout Iowa at the The Octagon Center for the Arts, The Dubuque Museum of Art, The Cedar Rapids Art Museum, The Iowa State Fair, and The Polk County Heritage Gallery. In 2018, she was chosen to paint a piano for City Sounds: The Des Moines Public Piano Project. In 2020, she was commissioned to paint a mural for Lightbrite Coffee Roasters in Grimes, Iowa. And in 2021, she was selected to paint a mural at Lauridsen Skatepark in Des Moines. Her work has won an honorable mention from the ‘Iowa Exhibited XXXV’ show at the Polk County Heritage Gallery in 2020, and the Veronika Ruedenberg Mixed Media Award at The Octagon Center for the Arts in 2022.
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Artist Statement
In the studio, I employ processes that impact nature such as erosion, evaporation and gravity to bring in details that cannot be recreated by the human hand. Much of my time is spent watching and waiting for paint to slowly migrate across the canvas. It is a reminder that the natural world does not work on our time-frame, and I embrace this time as a meditative activity. This work has become a back-and-forth between nature and my human tendencies. Sometimes impatience or fear of imperfection leads me to intervene in the natural flow of these forces, but the flow counter-corrects. I mimic the layers of the earth’s crust, but only by adding manufactured colors and man-made materials. It is an ebb and flow between who I am as a natural being and how I am influenced by the culture around me.
