Douglas Magnus ―
My journey as an artist has been nothing short of extraordinary. Although I failed art school and spent two challenging years in the Army, these experiences shaped me in ways I couldn’t have imagined. Moving to Santa Fe in the early seventies was a pivotal moment in my life. The vibrant culture and stunning landscapes of New Mexico have profoundly influenced my work, allowing me to grow and evolve as an artist. Embracing the unique spirit of this place has been incredibly rewarding, and I am excited to share my creative journey with you.
In revisiting my own creative and logistical processes, I am confronted by the fleeting traces of my life’s accomplishments, the successes and the failures, the step by step realization of “I can do this!,” now marked not only with retrospection, but also with an archive of completed jewelry designs so significant that it surprised even me. In fact, it is this revelation of the overwhelming quantity and diversity of works in these fifty years that struck me most. Even without this book or my commentary, the story of my life’s career can be gleaned from that fact alone. The work, as they say, speaks for itself!
Follow Me
Five Decades
Five Decades in anyone’s life is a long time!
Looking back is not something we need to dwell on often. In lives well-lived, it is the Now and the Future we must concentrate on. The past is largely unalterable. Happy or sad, we must move along.
Encountering a great milestone, however, prompts reflection, particularly a review of the manifested ideas involved in a singular career focus such as, in my case, fifty years of the design, creation, and marketing of jewelry forms.
For any creative soul, these forms may reveal themselves as physical constructions in materials such as stone, steel, silver, shells, or turquoise. They may exist as paint on a canvas or as bronze mimicking clay. Or they may be of an ethereal nature, on paper or in the air, such as music, dance, theatre, or storytelling. Different as they are, these all emerge from the same enigmatic source.
My artistic and business journey has always been solitary. And my methods, intuitive. None of us lives or works entirely alone, and certainly we cannot predict life’s unfolding amidst its ever-changing landscape, but to own and manage one’s responses and trajectory is ideal.
Short Videos
