PAUL DOEDEN
As a child I was always interested in picture books and studied anatomies of birds and dinosaurs. I drew constantly in grade school and watched television, a new medium at the time, voraciously. Our family moved to Hicksville, Ohio in 1959. I was always in the center of nature, hiking and collecting snakes and turtles. In a small town country setting. In high school, I was the cartoonist for the school paper. After graduation, I attended Ohio State University.
Upon entering Ohio State I began my studies in engineering. After one year, I took a drawing course, Art 100, and shortly after dropped engineering and pursued art full time.
Art was a source of freedom for me and my teachers let this freedom of creativity and learning form and flourish quite naturally. I was inspired by a formal education of art history and painting, drawing and sculpture. Printmaking was also a source of inspiration.
My favorite artists at that time were Picasso, Hans Hoffman, David Smith and Jackson Pollock. My teachers always encouraged me and made life happy and fulfilling. My artwork sprang from the abstract expressionists and later from minimalism and conceptual art. The sixties and seventies were a period of exploration of visual abstraction and combinations of found objects juxtaposed to painterly
movement. My art came from knowing art history and trusting in my visual intuition.
Upon entering Ohio State I began my studies in engineering. After one year, I took a drawing course, Art 100, and shortly after dropped engineering and pursued art full time.
Art was a source of freedom for me and my teachers let this freedom of creativity and learning form and flourish quite naturally. I was inspired by a formal education of art history and painting, drawing and sculpture. Printmaking was also a source of inspiration.
My favorite artists at that time were Picasso, Hans Hoffman, David Smith and Jackson Pollock. My teachers always encouraged me and made life happy and fulfilling. My artwork sprang from the abstract expressionists and later from minimalism and conceptual art. The sixties and seventies were a period of exploration of visual abstraction and combinations of found objects juxtaposed to painterly
movement. My art came from knowing art history and trusting in my visual intuition.
