Doug Coffin
FREE SPIRIT
A world-renowed artist, Doug Coffin spends
his days exploring new
ideas.
by Charlotte Berney, Focus Santa Fe, August/September
1998
Doug Coffin gestures to one side of his huge, airy studio, then
to the other, pointing out rows of totems, his latest series of paintings, and
photographs of past works on the walls. The sweeping space and the sheer veriety
of materials available --- paints, brushes, tools, wood, metal, and animal
skulls --- suggests an enormous creative talent at woek. This first impression
proves entirely accurate in describing this capable sculptor and
painter.
Regarding his versatility, Coffin comments, "I'm always testing
myself, and I want to keep it fun. I do that by changing the scale, the
material, the ideas. I'm in this for exploration and discovery. If I liked an
artist's work, I wouldn't want to go to his show five years later and see the
same thing again. I wakeup in the morning never knowing how the day's going to
turn out, what I'm going to make."
A recent exhibit of Coffin's work, titled "Taking Chances,"
featured reliquaries, fetishes, totems, and shields, with media ranging from
bronze and acrylic paints to steel, stone, leather, buffalo horns, and coyote
skulls.
With the hills of Abiquiu outside as a backdrop, Coffin has been
working on four paintings in his "Meditation Series." The large pieces
feature lush royal blue backgrounds framing gold symbols --- star, square,
pyramid, and circle --- textured with tiny gold beads. Powerful images, they
speak of spiritual richness and universal mind. They are the productions of an
artist who can manifest complex ideas in simple forms, a goal often sought but
seldom attained.
The other paintings in progress in the studio display his love
for color with hot hues of oragange, pink, and red. Arrows, triangles, and a
running buffalo not unlike the ones seen on hide paintings suggest native
visions and collective memories. As distintictive as the paintings are, the are
just one dimension of Coffin's output.
"In my mind, the paintings are not related to the sculptures,"
Coffin observes of his totems, 6 to 28 foot painted steel structures that mix
contemporary design and spiritual symbology. The towering forms contain the same
sense of universality within tradition, but have the added presence of three
dimensions. "I gravitate to power objects, " relates the artist, "such as
totems, shields, and breastplates. They seem to resonate in the
space."
The totems have been highly successful for Coffin, even taking
him to the White House last year for a meeting with First Lady Hillary Clinton.
The occasion was the inclusion of his work in an exhibition name "Twentieth
Century American Sculpture at the White House," and subtitled "Honoring Native
America," in which the works of 12 artists were displayed. Coffin's piece,
"Earth Messenger Totem," stood 28 feet high in the First Lady's
garden.
Coffin's mother, now
almost 80 ans still living in Kansas, accompanied him and his 23 year old son to
the Washington cermonies. Regarding this honor, Coffin notes, "Going to the
White House was a good experience for me. It was a form of recognition. I go my
own way so much of the time, and it showed me I'm not totally out of the
mainstream."
Far from being unnoticed, his totems stand
in many public collections, including the Heard Museum in Phoenix, United Indian
Nations University in Lawrence, Kansas, and a number of other museums and
universities. His work is represented in many private collections worldwide. In
fact, Coffin is recognized as one of the pioneering contemporary artists of his
generation. Ironically, his persistence in marching to his own drummer has
rendered his work both highly original and highly collectible.
His sense of appartness comes from his
Potawatomi/Creek Indian roots. He spent his first 20 years living on the grounds
of an Indian boarding school in Lawrence, Kansas, where his father was a sport
coach. The Indian student at the school were from many different trabes and
traditions.
"I've had a life that most people don't
have," he reflects. "The school was isolated, and you were made to be different,
rather than wanting to. I was exposed to the spritual tradition of various
tribes. Of course, during that time, the government was forcing everyone to give
up their ways."
During the summers, Coffin and his brother
often went to stay with their grandmother on the Potawatome reservation just an
hour away. There he was exposed to tribal life. But along with the positive side
of belonging to a unique culture came an awareness of inequities and prejudice.
"When people are not able to develop to their full potential," he maintains,
referring to the reservation, "the richness of life is taken away."
Knowing early on that he wanted to be an
artist, Coffin studied art for five years at the University of Kansas in
Lawrence, attaining a BFA. He went on to graduate school at the Cranbrook
Academy of Art in Michigan where he was awarded an MFA in sculpture and jewelry.
His work there demonstrates his was creativity as well as his sense of humor ---
on amazing jewelry piece, a ring, features a live potted plant instead of a
stone.
Though Coffin has just completed designs
for a series of medallions set with precious stones, he confides, "Jewelry
as a medium feels more confined to me, whereas sculpture allows me the freedom
to take the inspiration further."
The ideas that Coffin develops, spring from
his won experience. Following an emergency surgery, he was cared for in the
hospital by his mother, his girlfriend, and nurses. He wanted to depict the
nurturing roles that women plays in life, so he created a sculpture combining
sun and moon imagery. The beautiful "Sun/Moon Shaman" series of bronze
sculptures have that mixture of strenght and delicacy so characteristic of his
work.
The artist points out of this series, "The
shaman is a connection to the past, and in making it abstract, I don't limit the
concept. It's the same with the Native American material. I borrow images
but I generalize them and use them in new ways."
Coffin's future projects include a marble
sculpture, both larger and smaller totems, an earth pyramid and other earth
works, and buffalo spirit poles that recall the image of the buffalo. "My art is
about contracts," he professes, "both in time and in space. What interest me are
the images that live in the mind long after the reality is gone." Coffin's body
of work has that same unforgettable quality.
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