By Denise Perreault
“RUSSELL: Riding Unexpected Situations – See Evolution Liberate Life.”
That’s the acronym that artist, photographer and acronym-conjurer Russell McDougal created to describe his feelings about this year’s sale of the Walnut Business Center, where he’s rented his Boulder photography and art studio for 30 years.
Russell has until the end of the year to vacate the 1,200-square-foot high-ceilinged industrial building he’s worked in. The windowless studio has been perfect for photo shoots, and an ideal space for creating the photomontages that accompany the hundreds of acronyms he’s created over 40 years.
Even if you don’t know his name, you have likely seen McDougal’s work: during Open Studios and various art shows, on t-shirts and greeting cards at local shops, or in his Isle of View line of boxed insight cards or small books featuring his beloved acronyms alongside split or collaged photos.
One of his favorites? A collage/acronym combo called ART: Arrange Reality Tastefully.
“I love the magical symmetry of combining acronyms with photomontages to create wonderful connections,” he said. “If I have the items, I can recycle them into illuminating visual magic.”
Many local artists have depended on McDougal through the years to photograph their artwork. Other clients, including governor Jared Polis, have utilized his talents for portraits, product photos and acronym memes.
McDougal began collecting 50 years ago with iconic pieces from flea markets, antique shows and yard sales. His vast collection served to illustrate his acronyms. The floor of his studio couldn’t hold his growing collection, so an architect friend helped him build stairs and two additional levels filled with shelving to house it all.
McDougal’s collection — along with a sizable library, a rolling cart piled high with large sheets of handmade decorative papers, file cabinets brimming with slides and CDs, 150,000 unsold greeting cards, sculptures and artwork traded for photography services, and plastic bins filled with feathers, mirrors, seashells, fabric scraps and much more — has ballooned to fill every niche and surface.
One wall holds shelves displaying antique packaging. Other shelves hold thousands of antique and vintage finds: mechanical banks, tin toys, nun dolls, matchboxes, plastic animals, magic lantern and celluloid cartoon slides, Bakelite bracelets, cowboy and Indian figures, porcelain glove forms, button cards, paper die-cuts, Buddhist deities, cartoon and cave man characters, Disney collectibles, old calendars, political pins, novelty business freebies, Statue of Liberty souvenirs and glass Christmas ornaments.
“I love ornaments depicting iconic personalities, and they’re sparkly,” said McDougal during a recent tour.
Hundreds of antique postcards and scrapbooks filled with Valentine’s cards ooze from boxes and file cabinets. Peppered amongst it all are “lots of kitsch and novelty items,” as McDougal described them. Glass candies. Miniature crowns. Ceramic aquarium decorations. Tin milagros. Long fish kites. Gumball prizes. Masks. A tiny plastic TV with a secret erotic scene. A glittery heart-shaped rotary phone.
“Each item tells a story about the mood of an era. They’re artifacts that influenced our collective identity and helped shape our view of the world,” McDougal said. “They represent our historical, cultural and artistic heritage. That’s what makes this collection so valuable and magical. It’s great to have things from a saner, less-cynical time.”
Selling his vast collection is a daunting task, but he can’t afford to just give it away. Where to sell his expensive art and design books? Who will buy his fat stack of handmade papers? Who’s willing to take 150,000 greeting cards off his hands? (“Even 50 cents each would be fine,” he said.)
McDougal is unsure how many pieces he owns, and has never had them appraised.
“It’s bittersweet to part ways with this motherlode of living art and history,” he said. “It’s been an incredible and inspiring resource,” said McDougal.
His dream is to sell the collection as a whole “so that others can enjoy its artistic mosaic. I hope I can find a home for it that allows students and other creative people to access the wealth of imagery and ideas that come from such an inspiring segment of our heritage. Most people don’t know this stuff exists.”
McDougal has less than 30 days to unload his earthly wares and exit the Walnut studio forever. There goes another longtime Boulder artist, but that’s the disconcerting evolution of our town.
Denise Perreault is the founder of Art Parts Creative Reuse Center. She's a 40+ year member of the Boulder arts community as a weaver, seed-bead artist and antique beadwork restorer: DenisePerreault.com.
Interested in helping or acquiring some of McDougal’s collection? Contact Russell McDougal at 303-947-4547 or [email protected]