Water and Oil is Life, Nonviolence
2016, Fire & Rain Art Project, 2026
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I’m Doug Brinkman — a painter, social artist, and citizen free‑press storyteller based in Edmonton. My work lives in the space where public life, storms, symbols, and democracy collide. For nearly two decades I’ve carried a camera, a sketchbook, and a stubborn belief that ordinary citizens can document the world as honestly as any newsroom. The sample paintings on this page come from that same practice: art shaped by events, contradictions, and the restless weather of our shared world.
Artwork Statement: Question everything — why art is banned by the government, and why Canadian citizens are prevented from practicing free press in a democracy. Regardless of whether your name is not Artist Vincent van Gogh, President turned Painter George W. Bush, or Premier turned News Commentator Jason Kenney. This painting places two public figures inside parallel storms, each confronting a different era of upheaval.
On the left, George W. Bush stands as the painter‑president, surrounded by the melting steel and fires of war that followed the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States. His storm is one of geopolitical shockwaves, military decisions, and the long shadow cast across global politics.
On the right, Jason Kenney faces a different kind of crisis: a world gripped by a global pandemic and the cascading collapse of oil prices in Alberta and abroad. His storm is viral, economic, and deeply local—an upheaval that reshaped the province’s political and social landscape.
Together, the two figures form a study in leadership under pressure, painted into a single unsettled sky.
The terror attacks of 2001 and the pandemic nineteen years later become twin markers of instability—two moments when the world shifted, and when Alberta felt the shock through falling oil prices, political strain, and public uncertainty. This work stands as both a parallel and a provocation: How do leaders navigate storms they cannot control? And why, in a democracy, is the citizen artist still told where they may or may not stand?
"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, Twitter, 2020.
We Stand on Guard for Thee.
🍁US, Art is Freedom
