This month's exhibit will feature drawings by local artists Josephine and Brian Dougan! Head to the Hoxie Gallery from 5-7 pm Wednesday, March 4th for an opportunity to meet the artists and enjoy light bites. Works can be viewed in the Hoxie Gallery from Wednesday, March 4th-Friday, March 27th during library hours.

About the exhibition:

"The exhibition in the Hoxie Gallery consists of a collection of in situ drawings made over the course of twenty years while conducting a study abroad summer course for the American University of Sharjah College of Architecture, Art and Design. Professor Dougan ran a three-credit seeing/drawing course in Tuscany and Umbria for CAAD students every summer for twenty years until interrupted by the covid pandemic. It was a supplement to student's graphic education and an opportunity to experience a culture distant from the far east. In the initial years, Josephine was an elementary school student, but it did not take long for her to grow into a keen observational drawer far beyond her years. We worked in museums, churches, castles, piazzas, restaurants and wherever something caught our eyes. We used sketchbooks and Italian Fabriano folio sheets. Collected in the Hoxie Gallery are some of the individual sheets and we hope to share the sketchbook pages at another time. The drawings were made quickly with an attitude that quantity provides quality. The results are rather personal, not intended to be showpieces. The objective is to use a pen to see that which one would not see without careful attention; to discover one's place in relation to the unknown."

About the artists:

Josephine Dougan: "A fountain pen and sketchbook were the primary materials needed to engage Italy. On our annual trips, me and my father would collect our pens, colored pencils, a couple books, and some Fabriano paper and travel from museum to cathedral to piazza observing and documenting the many facets of Italian art and architecture. Pulling from this seemingly endless catalogue of reference drawings from our trips, we have managed to develop a visual language of our own. I began my education in Sharjah, and then studied Visual Art and Art Education in Boston where I currently reside and teach high school Art in the public school system. My student’s curiosity has become a driving force behind my own practice. Observation drawing - training the hand to coordinate with the eyes - is the primary goal of the courses I currently teach. I recently designed and now also teach fiber arts courses. Constant material explorations propel the work that I make. Traditional fiber techniques like quilting, beading, embroidery, and crochet carry a weighted history that I am currently investigating and teaching my students.

Brian Dougan: "My creative life has been rich and I am fortunate to have had a worldly academic career. I am a retired Professor of Architecture. I spent my youth in the United States, but discovered my voice in Italy and refined it in the United Arab Emirates. I find joy being a designer, a potter, a drawer, a father, a mountain biker, a chef, and a teacher, not in any particular hierarchy. I engage in a diverse array of creative endeavors and I understand them all as the same activity with different flavors. I have gathered inspiration from the countless Italian study tours I have conducted over my academic career. My relationship with history keeps me engaged in the present. My studio now is at times a pottery shop, sometimes a wood shop, sometimes a bicycle shop, sometimes a drawing studio, and always a place to ponder the human condition and explore creativity with curiosity. I practice breadth as a means to depth and I am committed to the activity of communication, demonstration and forthright veracity."