Doug Brinkman

13th, Birds of a

Feather Art Project

Art is Freedom

Doug Brinkman

2000, Social Art Projects, 2025

The Selfish Pursuit of Artistic Truth

🎨Selfishness often gets a bad rap. It’s branded as greedy, thoughtless, a trait best left on the villain’s shelf. But peel away the stigma, and you’ll find that in art, selfishness can be revolutionary—especially when it’s paired with vision, vulnerability, and integrity. Take the Group of Seven: A.Y. Jackson and Lawren Harris didn’t have their fame handed to them, even though Harris had wealth from the Massey-Harris fortune. They worked hard, committed deeply, and “selfishly” pursued an unshakable idea—that Canadian landscapes deserved their own voice in art.

🎨And then there’s Jack Bush. Trapped in the commercial art world for decades, he suffered anxiety and depression. He longed for a life of emotional honesty—one where color, not corporate briefs, spoke for him. Inspired by the Group of Seven and later mentored by Clement Greenberg, Bush “selfishly” chose abstraction, ditching safety for soul. His art didn’t chase trends—it chased feeling. And in doing so, it soared internationally.

Nature

🎨Mindful selfishness, the kind that: Defies conformity to pursue personal truth. Sets boundaries that guard mental, emotional, and cultural health. Turns pain into inspiration. Gives yourself and others permission to be unapologetically themselves. Yes, privilege played a role. Yes, systemic barriers shaped outcomes. But at the core, each story is a testament to how “selfish” choices—when made with integrity—can spark transformation in not just the artist, but the world they paint...

Democracy

Incorporated

Faith

🎨By rejecting European traditions, they carved out space for a uniquely Canadian aesthetic. Their boundaries weren’t barriers—they were a declaration: We paint what we believe. Contrast that with the Indian Group of Seven (Professional Native Indian Artists Inc.). These artists—Norval Morrisseau, Daphne Odjig, Alex Janvier, and others—had no silver platter, no institutional warmth. What they had was fierce resolve. Their “selfishness” wasn’t about ego—it was survival. They refused to be typecast as cultural artifacts and instead demanded recognition as contemporary creators. They built their own galleries, funded their own shows, and shaped a legacy that fought erasure with artistic defiance.

🍁US & Them, Art Show & Tell, of a Point of Order, add a little ice cream, my just reward. A young woman, lingering with a tattooed crowd in downtown Edmonton near the library, complimented my artwork. After finishing my rapidly melting ice cream in the 24°C heat, I walked over to her gang to show the backside, titled Disorder. Suddenly, a young man lunged at me. "Get the f*** away from here!" he snapped. Before I could react, the group's matriarch—Mama Tattoo—spoke up. "I like your painting," she said, her voice steady. The young man’s demeanor shifted. He looked at the artwork again, his expression softening. "That's an amazing piece of art," he admitted.

HOMME MADE - DUNDEE LAW

Tribute to Virgil Abloh and Dennis Edney

BRUCE COCKBURN "IF I HAD A ROCKET LAUNCHER"

911 RETIBUTION,🍁US Canada's Mission in Afghanistan

2000 - 2001, 2013, 2015, 2025...

9 Afghan Boys Gathering Firewood

2019, Speakers Banned Speech & LISTEN Label Wear Logo - AGA, Eddy Cobiness, Caribou

2016, (Banned) Fire and Rain art project

25 Paintings, 160 Art Shows, Edmonton

Wear Red when we go marching, Rome is burning. "When I first looked at it, it reminded me of Notre Dame Cathedral burning. It also reminds me of some of Van Gogh’s paintings. If we are burning now, like Notre Dame, we will rise better and stronger." - Marg McCuaig-Boyd, 2020, Former Alberta Energy Minister..

Découpé Visual Narrative Cut Up on YouTube. A look into the past to see the future unknown. I’ve taken recent and archived citizen-free news stories and interlaced them with various sounds and visuals. This process transforms a new art, crafting a fresh narrative akin to the cut-up technique (or ‘découpé’ in French). The original method involves dissecting and reassembling written text to create a new text and, consequently, a new sound and image experience. The roots of this concept can be traced back to the Dadaists of the 1920s, but it was writer William S. Burroughs who brought it to the forefront in the 1950s and early 1960s. William S. Burroughs saw cut-ups as a powerful tool for literary experimentation, unlocking hidden layers of meaning and offering glimpses into the future. Once featured inside the old Art Gallery of Alberta, AGA, whether as a form of divination or a creative technique, cut-ups intrigue writers, artists and all dreamers alike.

🍁US

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