DOUGIE PADILLA

     Dr. Swami lucky dougie padilla is a self-taught visionary hippie/beat magic surrealist artist of Norwegian/ Mexican/ cowboy roots living in the wilds of Northfield, Minnesota and along lovely Lake Pepin on the mighty Mississippi. In his 73 years he has lived in a tent thru a sub-zero winter, farmed soybeans, survived the psychedelic travails of Haight-Ashbury, created and lost a million dollar a year business, trained with an underground anti-vietnam war/Chicano power cadre, meditated and lived with his guru in India, done thousands of drawings and paintings, and founded/co-founded numerous organizations and businesses, among them Dougieland Studios, Art Jones Gallery, Art-A-Whirl, Grupo Soap del Corazón, The Borneo Group, Salon Artisimo, the Minnesota Men’s Retreats(with Robert Bly), Mill City Foods co-op, Frontera Psychic Tarot, Satsang Tuesday Nights, Paris Northeast and Luna Brava Press - some of which lasted ten minutes, some of which have lasted 40 years. Among occupations he has counted artist, and arts activist, farmer, blacksmith’s apprentice, small business owner, jade cutter, sportswear designer, psychic tarot reader, yoga instructor, carpenter, house painter, nurse’s aide, roofer, single father, and census taker. He learned to sight sing Bach cantatas at age 11, lasted two embattled years in college (1966-8), wandered schizophrenic on the streets of Chicago, had his first heart failure at age 20, helped birth his daughter in a rural commune, and coached and played soccer until his foot didn’t work anymore (age 52).

      He has studied life and spirituality with Ronnie Nelson, Jerry Gerasimo, Swami Vishnudevananda, Swami Venkatesananda, Stephen Gaskin, Dainin Katagiri Roshi, Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, Michael Macmacca, Robert Bly, James Hillman, Malidome Some’, Miguel Rivera, Martin’ Prectel and Echo Bodine... among others. He sees the Cobra School, Pharoah Sanders, Jim Denomie, Federico Garcia Lorca, Nikki de Saint Phalle, Howard Finster, William Blake, Gary Snyder, Rahasaan Roland Kirk, Friedensreich Hundertwasser, Jim Harrison, Norval Morrisseau, Marc Chagall, Louise Nevelson, Johnny Cash, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Diane Di Prima, Manuel Mendive, Louise Erdrich, and Artemio Rodriguez as some of the pillars of his aesthetic universe.  He has shown at the Museé Halle Saint Pierre in Paris, France, Projeckt Traum in Friedrichshaffen, Germany, the National Mexican Museum of Art in Chicago, the Minneapolis Institute of Art, the Minnesota Museum of American Art, and The Fredrick Weisman Museum in Minneapolis/St. Paul, 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. He has taught art at all levels, mentored innumerable young artists, juried art competitions and fellowships, and curated shows from street to museum. He has won awards and grants, and served on the boards and committees of arts and community non-profits.

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      Ok, now it’s 2022 and, currently, Dougie is co-producing (with Xavier Tavera) and showing in an ambitious six month anniversary group exhibiton, “La Linea: 22 Years of Grupo Soap del Corazon”, at the Plains Museum in Fargo, North Dakota. Soon after that opens, Grupo Soap’s next show, “Mestizaje: Mix-Remix”, opens at the Minnesota Museum of american Art in St. Paul. Then, in the fall, a third Grupo show, “Frontera Liminal”, will run at the Anderson Center for the Arts in Red Wing Minnesota. For that exhibit Padilla (monoprints and poetry) and Tavera (photograpy) will discuss the trans-cultural, trans-political and trans-spiritual aspects of their work. Padilla is also working hard to publish his third full size book of poetery, “The Left Hand Path”, to present at a Plains Museum reading in July along with a poetry broadside that will be printed and distributed there.

Then, with covid’s demise, he will be launching his dougiepadillapoet.com world tour traveling show with poetry reading and performances and art, starring dougie and friends, with stops in locales like Mineapolis, St. Paul, Red Wing, Winona, Mankato, Perham, Knife River, Fergus Falls, Lanesboro, Duluth, Moorhead, Grand Marais, Minnesota,plus, Stockholm, and Bayfield,Wisconsin, and Fargo and Sioux Falls in the Dakotas. Also, in 2023, he will be co-producing and showing another large exhibition for Grupo Soap de Corazon at the Minnesota Museum of American Art, the showpiece for the reopening of the museum after a major expansion and remodeling. Finally, he hasn’t abandoned his memoirs , Art Dogs and Angels, which will be published in the “god knows when future” in someform or another, audio, video, or print.

Dougie Padilla currently resides some of the time in the lovely Cannon River Valley college town of Northfield, Minnesota, just an hour south of the Twin Cities, with his extraordinary wife, Susan… and the rest of his time in his storefront studio along the banks of the mighty Mississippi, where he has a great time making art and writing and fishing and roaming the gravel roads of the bluff country with his beloved coonhound Stella. He travels back and forth between these two heavens every week and sometimes up to “the cities” to see his grands and friends and partake a bit in the ongoing art scene and is still, still, o so pleased to live on this earth, in these heavens wild.

OM TAT SAT

some bio fotos fer yer enjoyment: