Dougie Padilla is a self-taught visionary artist and poet of Norwegian/Mexican/cowboy roots living in the wilds of Northfield, Minnesota and creates his art and poetry at his art studio in Pepin, Wisconsin, USA. In his 78 years he has lived in a tent thru a sub-zero winter, farmed soybeans, survived the psychedelic travails of Haight-Ashbury, trained with a Chicano power cadre, meditated and lived with his guru in India, done thousands of drawings and paintings, written hundreds of poems, and founded/co-founded numerous organizations; among them Dougieland Studios, Art Jones Gallery, Art-A-Whirl, Grupo Soap del Corazón, Salon Artisimo, the Minnesota Men’s Conference, Paris Northeast, and Luna Brava Press. For occupations he has counted artist and arts activist, farmer, blacksmith’s apprentice, jade cutter, sportswear designer, psychic, single father, soccer coach, arts educator, yoga instructor, carpenter, house painter, and hospital orderly. He learned to sight sing Bach cantatas at age 11, lasted two embattled years in college (1966-8), then wandered schizophrenic on the streets of Chicago.
He had his first heart failure at age 20, helped birth his daughter in a rural commune, and coached and played soccer until his foot did not work anymore (age 51). He has studied life and spirituality with Swami Vishnudevananda, Swami Venkatesananda, Stephen Gaskin, Katagiri Roshi, Osho (Bhagwan Shri Rajneesh), Michael Macmacca, Robert Bly, James Hillman, Malidome Some’, Martin’ Prectel and Echo Bodine... among others. He sees the CoBrA school, Manuel Mendive, Pharoah Sanders, Federico Garcia Lorca, Nikki de Saint Phalle, Manuel Mendive, Howard Finster, William Blake, Rahasaan Roland Kirk, Friedensreich Hundertwasser, Marc Chagall, Louise Nevelson, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Louis Erdrich, Yusef Lateef, and Artemio Rodriguez as pillars of his aesthetic universe. He has shown at the Museé Halle Saint Pierre in Paris, the National Mexican Museum of Art in Chicago, the Minneapolis Institute of Art, The Fredrick Weisman Museum, the Minnesota Museum of American Art, ProjekTraum in Germany, the Plains Museum in Fargo, on the streets and in the cultural centers of Chile, and in countless galleries and arts arenas throughout the U.S.A.
A lifelong activist, Dougie Padilla has served on boards and committees of numerous arts non-profits, has educated and mentored artists of all ages, and has curated and organized exhibitions and art events at all levels. In 2000 he co-founded Grupo Soap del Corazon, a Latinx artists' group that has had forty-four exhibitions and shown the work of well over one hundred artists in a span of 25 years. For this he has received numerous awards, among them several Minnesota State Arts Board Fellowships, the Northeast Minneapolis Arts District Vision Award, two Ofrenda awards from CreArte, Chicano Latino Cultural Center and Museum, and the Jerome Foundation Travel Grant. He was named Minneapolis’ City Pages’ “Artist of the Year” and has been nominated for a Bush Foundation lifetime achievement award.
He resides with his lovely wife and has wonderful kids and grandkids and continues to greatly enjoy his trips around the sun.
