Douglas Jaser is an American mixed media painter whose work deals with perception, memory, and meaning making. He was born in Milford, CT and began painting as a child. He received his BA from Fairfield University and majored in Studio Art. He studied at the Fairfield, CT and Florence, Italy campuses. His work is characterized by a layering of contrasting colors. His process involves identifying an idea, planning an approach, and the building up and removal of a range of media until the work feels complete. His process involves the merging of predictable and unpredictable techniques. The layering allows for previous layers to sometimes peek through and other times become covered. The effect produces a visual complexity that mirrors the way we encounter experiences, form memories, and make meaning. His juxtaposition of color prompts the viewer to meditate on the complexity of the image and reflect on what they see, and feel. It asks us to examine what experiences have shaped our perceptions, and what memories have been covered by other impressions, experiences, and the veil of time.

Artist Statement:

My work finds inspiration in my family history, art history, and the way individuals and society perceive the world around us. It is influenced by a range of artists including Gerhard Richter, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Robert Rauschenberg, Edouard Vuillard, and Vincent Van Gogh. 

My process involves selecting a theme, color palette, and feeling that I intend to impart, and then engaging in a process of adding paint, removing paint, adding paper or other mixed media, removing, and then adding on again. The process involves using a combination of predictable and unpredictable techniques. I often use contrasting colors and apply the paint with various tools such as palette knives, brushes, and sponges to build up the piece. During this process I meditate on whether the work is moving into a state of completion or not and use my intuition to guide me. 

Through these techniques I create both non-representational abstract paintings and loosely representational abstract works. There are plans but there is also an intuitive improvisation. I often name a piece based on a combination of intention behind the work, memories inspired by the work, and/or intuitive visual association.  

I view my process as a metaphor for an evolving consciousness. Over time, layers of experience are added, each of which may or may not alter the work’s fundamental character. I think of my work as an artifact achieved by this layering; each layer an expression of an event in time.  

Like people's experiences, some impressions stay, some fade, and some live beneath the surface with vitality and peak through only under certain conditions. The visual complexity mirrors the complexity of our living, evolving, and interacting with new experiences. The abstraction highlights that we don’t often know what elements of our histories create the feelings, the thoughts, and the essence of our perceptions. 

My hope is that my work provokes reflection on the way our individual beliefs, perceptions, and feelings are unique but also linked to a greater mosaic that transcends our individual experience.

Publications:

Astonish Art Magazine, Issue #49, August, 2024

Awards:

Blue Space Gallery, Finalist in Emerging Artists Exhibit, 2024

Ten Moir Gallery, Finalist Award, Vibrant Colors Art Competition, 2023

Teravarna Art Gallery, Finalist Award, International Art Competition, 2023

Exhibition History:

Abstract Zone Biafarin Online Exhibition, 2024

Eyes Exhibizone Gallery, Online, 2024

Wood, Water, and War                       Starpin Gallery, Shelton, CT, 2006

Elements of Abstraction                     Starpin Gallery, Shelton, CT, 2006

Energy, Structures of Balance and the Chaos In Between

Starpin Gallery, Shelton, CT, 2006

Prevue                                      Starpin Gallery, Shelton CT, 2005

Starving Artists Gala                             Lukacs Gallery, Fairfield University, 2002

Content Under Pressure           Lukacs Gallery, Fairfield University, 2002

Student Works on Paper Tyler School of Art,  Philadelphia Pennsylvania, Edinburgh School of Art, Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design, Dundee, Scotland, 2002 

This is all Really Happening          Lukacs Gallery, Fairfield University, CT, 2001 

Studio Selects Thomas J. Walsh Art Gallery, Fairfield, CT, 2001