Douglas Fraser was born in Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada. He attended the Alberta College of Art & Design in Calgary where he studied graphic design and illustration. After four years at ACAD he went to New York for graduate school, attaining a masters degree, MFA, from the School of Visual Arts. Without missing a beat, Doug became an award winning illustrator, having executed commissioned works for an array of international clients including The New York Times, the Washington Post, TIME, Newsweek, BusinessWeek, Wirtschafts Woche (Germany), Rolling Stone, Mother Jones, Motor Trend, NHL, IBM, and Levis.
His technique originally involved traditional media of oils on canvas and evolved over the years to incorporate digital aspects both exclusive and combined with paint. During the early 90's, he was approached by the ACAD(Alberta College of Art & Design in Calgary) to teach and accepted a part-time position. Doug has sat on several juries and spoken in numerous cities including New York and Los Angeles.
His illustration work has been exhibited in the US, England, Japan and Canada. Memberships have included the prestigious Society of Illustrators(NY) for eighteen years, the advisory panel of ICON5, the American Illustrator Partnership (founding member status), CAPIC and the Graphic Artists Guild of New York. 2004 recipient of the Alberta College of Art & Design Board of Governors Alumni Award of Excellence.
After a long successful career as an illustrator, the desire to create works of a different nature and purpose began to surface. Building on the technical knowledge developed professionally as a visual communicator in the graphics world for 30 years, he began to experiment once again, without the burden of client and other constraints. This freedom enabled Doug to move beyond his past and develop a body of work which is more personal in subject. This new body of paintings strongly links artistic influences with personal observations. Influences affecting structure include graphic design, abstract and figurative art. A two dimensional quality is embraced and the construction becomes as important as the subject. The subject, which is somewhat banal in tone, is derived from his own first hand experience. Exploring subject that which is usually only seen in passing, but is now observed more closely. Intense visual study precedes a process of disassembling and then reconstruction. Throughout, there's an internal dialogue between the objective and the subjective. The experiential challenge of this process has Douglas tracing the edges of where the figurative meets abstraction.
EDUCATION; Alberta College of Art & Design, Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Visual Communication Arts. School of Visual Arts, New York, New York, M.F.A. degree.
ILLUSTRATION CLIENTS; Editorial: Boston Globe, Business Week, BUZZ, Esquire, Forbes, Globe & Mail, GQ, L.A. Times, Mademoiselle, Manhattan Inc, Mother Jones, Newsweek, New York Times, New York Woman,Omni, Penthouse, FORTUNE, TIME, Washington, Self, Sports Illustrated, Texas Monthly, Washington Post, Rolling Stone Book: David R. Godine, Houghton-Mufflin, Knopf, Macmillan, Rabbit Ears Video & Book, Simon Schuster, The Progressive, Turner Publishing (CNN), BLAB!, Telstar Comic compilation Corporate: Air Canada, Allen-Bradley [a Division of Rockwell International],Citibank, Coca-Cola, Danzas (Europe), IBM, Kingston Electronics, Kohler, Levis, Lowenbrau Beer, Concept-1 Calgary, Memorex, Oakland A's Baseball Team, National Football League, National Hockey League, Nike, Northern Telecom, Nynex NY, Pfizer, RCA, Roundtree U.K., Samsung Electronics, Sony, Suzuki Motorcycles, Tamko, USF&G [financial investment group]. Graphic Novel, Comic Book: Adhouse Press, story titles; "Electric Sheep", "Pugilist Binary", "Romance", and "Mort Grim". BLAB! #12, #13, and "New & Used BLAB retrospective" Outdoor Boards and Murals: Levis [Detroit], Lowenbrau Beer [throughout US], The Power House [St. Louis], Tasco [San Francisco]