Root, Branch and Star: Gallery Exhibit Doug Baulos

All artists have a way of breaking down perceptions and helping us view the world with a different perspective. They can use the simplest of objects and materials to create incredible and beautiful imagery. Artist Douglas Baulos uses hand made papers and natural dyes to express a multitude of elements in his work, such as grief and mortality, nesting, mending, and memory to name a few. His next immersive installation, “Root, Branch, and Star”, will be the first gallery exhibit at the Shelby County Arts Council’s new EBSCO Fine Art Gallery.

These unique installations are created using natural fibers and constructed with found materials. “Although I work with emotionally heavy conceptual themes like loss, mortality, and the power and delicate nature of memory my work is a reflection of my
attempt to live my life in fragile exultation,” says Baulos. “I merge the abstraction of narrative with the physicality of objects.” Baulos remarks that writers of southern literature, such as Harper Lee and Carson McCullers, have been influences in his works. “I mirror their interest in the subliminal, unremarkable and overlooked within exquisite emotional landscapes. I express the oscillation of hope and despair while exploring the boundaries and intersections within the nature of identity.” Not only is Baulos a professional visual artist, he is the Assistant Professor of Drawing at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and the curriculum director at Studio by the Tracks-an art center that provide free art classes to emotionally conflicted children and adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder or other mental
illnesses. Baulos’s work has also been featured in numerous galleries around the world! The exhibit “Root, Branch, and Star” opens at the Shelby County Arts Council in Old Mill Square on Friday, September 20th at 6pm. More of Baulos’s work can be seen at www.dougbaulos.com.