Artist Statement
I have been on a spiritual path for a long time.
In 1972, I discovered the “Tao te Ching” translation by Gai-fu Feng. I immediately bicycled from Buffalo to Colorado, looking for the Stillpoint Foundation. My life as an artist has been driven by spiritual quest.
“The purpose of art is not to communicate with the audience. The purpose of art is to still and quiet the mind and make it receptive to divine influences.” John Cage
As an art student, I had the honor of working with John Cage, and he spoke these words directly to me. These words laid the foundation upon which I have built my entire life as an artist. In 1985, I died in a motorcycle accident. After a period of 6 hours, I returned to the living, alive in the world and also alive in the next. In 2005, I sold my goldsmith business and moved to a remote island in the Caribbean where I lived in solitude for four years. After forty years as a painter, it was during this time that I discovered a reason to paint.
I see my work as creating Spiritual Landscapes, portals that can transport the viewer from ordinary to non-ordinary realities. They serve as points of departure, doorways opening into the collective unconsciousness. The “art” presented is not the object being viewed but in what the viewer experiences when viewing the object. When you think of a Himalayan singing bowl, you naturally recall the sound, not the bowl. The sound experienced transcends the form of the bowl itself.
Like a Zen koan, my paintings and sculptures may challenge the viewer, but never in a confrontational way, and allow the unconscious to present new images and ideas with a focus on Balance, Tension, and Harmony. They become an unsolved riddle. I embrace the power of space rather than form, trying to paint the vast power and intelligence of stillness. It is in stillness that everything is born.
The Tao that can be named is not the eternal Tao.
The name than can be named is not the eternal name.
The nameless is the beginning of heaven and earth.
The named is the mother of ten thousand things.
Ever desireless, one can see the mystery.
Ever desiring, one can see the manifestations.
These two spring from the same source but differ in name;
This appears as darkness.
Darkness within darkness,
The gate to all mystery.
Lao Tsu, “Tao te Ching”
Translated by Gai-fu feng
These paintings that I create are the postcards from the journey that I am on, the sculptures are souvenirs of my passage. They are a dialog between me and the source of creation. My hope is that another will find them and that they will resonate, like the sound of a singing bowl. Perhaps, without a melody, a deeper song will rise.
My current project is to create a way to amplify the vibrations in the exhibition space. In 2021, I had a solo exhibition titled “The Art of Solitude,” where I illuminated the paintings, not by spotlights, but by ambient light, and by the placement of (LED) candles on a pedestal in front of each painting. Many people came to sit before the paintings and expressed a sense of gratitude to experience the work in a deeper way.
It has become clear to me that in these most challenging times, the need is great for an experience art provides; that still and quiet place, where we can find the courage to explore what lies within.
ARTIST’S BIOGRAPHY
Douglas Zaruba was born in Buffalo, NY, in 1949 and studied Fine Art, Architecture, Poetry, and Physics at the State University of New York at Buffalo. In the mid-70’s, he shared studio space at the Essex Street Studios in Buffalo along with other young artists, including Duayne Hatchett, Robert Longo, and Cindy Sherman. After an initial success as a painter, he abandoned painting to become a nationally-recognized jewelry designer and master goldsmith. In 2005, he left the US to live on a remote Caribbean island off the coast of Panama, where he began to paint again and create sculpture. Upon returning to the US in 2010, he pursued both fine art and fine jewelry design.
In 2023, Douglas Zaruba closed his jewelry studio to focus solely on his fine art and meditation in a secluded location in West Virginia.
Douglas Zaruba maintains a studio 4978 Old Martinsburg Grade Rd, Augusta, WV 21704.
MAJOR SHOWS & EXHIBITIONS
Wills Creek Exhibition 2023, Allegheny Arts Council, Columbia, MD
RI Center for Photographic Arts, "Black, White, & All the Grays Between," 2022, "Stillness of Rain" - Providence, RI
Remarque, "Blurring the Lines: Exploring the Frontiers of Photography & Printmaking," July 2022. "Returning to Silence" - Albuquerque, NM
Art Expo New York, 2022. “Ghosts in the House of Time #1” and “Ghosts in the House of Time #2” – New York, NY
Jones Gallery, "February Group Art Show" 2022. Painting, "Floating Cloud" - Kansas City, MO
District Arts, themed juried show "Wind" October 2021 - Frederick, MD
The Delaplaine Arts Center, "The Art of Solitude" 2021. Solo Exhibition - Frederick, MD
Museum of Fine Art, Washington County, “Cumberland Valley Artists Exhibition” 2021. Painting, Untitled (Black Series #10) - (SECOND PLACE JUROR’S AWARD) - Hagerstown, MD
Barrett Art Center, “Photowork 2021”. “Leaving a Staff Outside the Door” (acrylic on photograph) and “Stillness of Rain” - Poughkeepsie, NY
Shockboxx Project Gallery juried show, “Minimalism” November, 2020 - Hermosa Beach, CA
The Delaplaine Art Center, “The Delaplaine National Juried Art Exhibition” 2020. Painting, Untitled (Black Series) #3 - Frederick, MD (FIRST PRIZE AWARD)
Museum of Fine Art, Washington County, “Cumberland Valley Artists Exhibition 2020”. Painting, “Nothing, Becoming” - Hagerstown, MD
4th Biennial Maryland Regional Juried Art Exhibition 2019 (BMRE), “Proposed Navigation” - University of Maryland University College, Adelpi, MD
Mary Condon Hodgson Art Gallery, Frederick Community College, “Spiritual Landscapes” Douglas Zaruba Solo Exhibition 2019 -Frederick, MD
HALLWALLS Art Center, “Members Show” 2019 - Buffalo, NY
Washington County Museum of Fine Art, “Cumberland Valley Art Exhibition” 2018 - Hagerstown, MD
ArtistAngle Gallery, “The Moon on the Pond is Not the Moon” 2016 - Frederick, MD
“The Marriage of Art, Science, and Philosophy,” American Visionary Art Museum, 2008/2009 - Baltimore, MD
Museum of Decorative Arts: “Two Capitals” April, 2004 - Moscow, Russia
Gallery I/O, “The Art of the Martini,” April, 2004 - New Orleans, LA
Shaw Gallery, “Erotica in Jewelry,” June 2004 - Northeast Harbor, ME
Primavera Gallery, August, 2004 - Ojai, CA
Grannis Gallery, September, 2004 - Burlington, VT
Harbor Square Gallery, 2002 - Rockland, ME
Southern Allegheny Museum of Art, 2001 - Ligonier, PA
Philadelphia Craft Show: Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1998 - Philadelphia, PA
Contemporary Art Center of Virginia, 1998 - Virginia Beach, VA “Imbedded Images,” curated sculpture exhibition
Xzentrix Gallery, with Caroline Tyler, 1997 - Santa Fe, NM
Works Gallery: Solo Exhibition, 1997 - Philadelphia, PA
AGTA, Tucson Gem Show, 1996 - Tucson, AZ
JCK: Las Vegas 1993-1998 - Las Vegas, NV
Aaron Faber Gallery, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998 - New York City, NY
Langman Gallery, 1995, 1996 - Willow Grove, PA
Sheila Nussbaum Gallery, 1995 - Milburn, NJ Sharadin Art Gallery, Kutztown University, 1994 - Kutztown, PA
Barbara Breit Collection, 1994 - Exhibition in Tokyo, Japan
Gayle Wilson Gallery, 1994 - Southampton, NJ
American Crafts Museum: “Gold Jewelry 1993” - New York City, NY
