Artist Portfolios > Bob Doucette



“REACH FOR THE STARS”
a Solo Show by Bob Doucette

What does it mean to “reach for the stars?” It’s not like reaching for the soap, reaching for the bottle or reaching for a crutch. Those actions are all things we can do with our physical bodies, reaching for the stars requires our souls. I’m sure when the phrase was coined there was very little chance of someone actually reaching a star physically. It was meant as a euphemism for reaching beyond our human experience. “The stars are the limit,” another phrase we use to explain the unexplainable and one of my favorites “I love you to the stars and back!” When there are no words to describe how something ‘feels’ we come up with euphemisms, poetry and of course: Art.
It has been said by many wise scholars that we are spiritual beings having a human experience. The essential physical experience as a human is making connections with others. It is our highest calling. To make connections through art we need to rise beyond the physical plane to let our spirits soar so that we can touch others and at the same time reach for the stars.

Bob Doucette’s whimsical and highly saturated paintings come from the world of dreams. Sometimes bordering on surreal, his imagery is a product of a decade of theater work, puppetry and twenty-five years in the world of animation. As an animation director he was responsible for many well known animated children’s programs for PBS including, Chloe’s Closet, Dive Olly Dive and Clifford’s Puppy Days. He started in animation at Warner Bros. and was involved with many classics like Tiny Toon Adventures and Animaniacs. His independently animated films won him many prestigious awards and honors and his MFA thesis film Pink Triangle, the first animated film to depict the persecution of homosexuals by the Nazis, is in the permanent collection at the New York Public Library.
As a doll maker Bob has been in galleries since the early 90s. His Ben Franklin doll, created for the White House Christmas tree in 1999, is in the permanent collection of the Smithsonian. Many of his dolls are in the private collection of Demi Moore and have been featured in books, magazines articles and TV programs.

Bob earned a BFA at Rhode Island School of Design and an MFA at CalARTS and studied both illustration and animation. He was born in Waterville Maine and at present lives in Peoria with his husband Tom and his two cats Ginger and BooBoo.