Email: doug@dougtaylor.co
Website: www.dougtaylor.co
Awards and Distinctions
2020 Civic Distinction Award /City of Surrey/ Nautilus
2009 Art in America
Bird Song Listening Station, Seattle Center, is selected in 19 top international public art works. Also selected: Chris Burden, Olafur Eliasson and Barbara Kruger
2002 Canada Council for the Arts
Senior Research / Media Arts Grant
1981 Emily Carr College of Art and Design
Honours Diploma , Bachelor of Visual Arts
Award of Merit
- 1976 BC Federation of Artists Award
- 1975 BC Ceramics, first prize award
- 1974 Canada Council for the Arts
Artist Practice
I love to build weathervanes, mobiles and kinetic sculptures that reflect the spirit and storyline of a site. The use of wind, water or solar power to animate sculpture recognizes the deeper and eternal powers at play on earth… it helps us reconnect with the elements and stand in awe of them. My installations have also generated their own electricity ! by means of wind and solar energy, thus erasing their own carbon footprint over time. For example, Seattle Centre’s Bird Song Listening Station selected in 2008 by Art In America as on of 19 top international public art works.
Its taken 30 years of trial and error, but I now produce mobile works of all sizes that require no maintenance….its all about achieving graceful movement and self governing against high winds.
My Vancouver installations Khenko and the WindSwimmer are works deeply rooted in the genre of whirligigs our pioneer settlers used to make for their back yards (woodchoppers and wing flappers ). Seattle Centre’s Bird Song Listening Station uses wind and solar to generate sound samples of birds, once native to the site. All three works use wind for their motive power and govern themselves by means of uniquely designed engineering.
The function of the repetitive motions in these pieces serves to heighten the existential nature of daily life. The power of repetition is something G.K. Chesterton wrote about in the Everlasting Man when he talked about the beauty of the sun coming up every day – far from being boring, it is the repetitive aspect of this action that makes it so powerful.
Public Art Commissions
2022 – Wind Wheel Mobile / Asbestos Memorial
Client: Labour Heritage Society
Location: Vancouver Convention Center (East)
Facilitator: Clive Grout Architect
2018 – Tree Frog Mobile
Client: City of North Vancouver
Location: Semisch Park, North Vancouver
Facilitator: Lori Phillips (PAO NV Recreation and Culture)
2017 – Bodhi Frog
Client: District of Oak Bay
Location: Willows Beach, Victoria
Facilitator: Barbara Adams / Wayne Clogg
2016 – Leaf Weathervane
Client: Joy Coghill
Location: PAL Vancouver
Facilitator: Jane Durante / Durante Kreuk Landscape Architects
2014 – Nautilus
Client: Rize Alliance
Location: Wave, Surrey, BC
Facilitator: Peter Kreuk / Durante Kreuk Landscape Architects
2010 – Pioneer Spirit
Client: City of Coquitlam / Maillardville Centennial
Location: Makin Park, Coquitlam
Funding: Heritage Canada
2008 – Bird Song Listening Station
Client: City of Seattle
Location: Seattle Center .Fischer Pavillion
Facilitator: Seattle Arts Commission
2004/2007 – Frog & Moonshell
Client: Dale Bosa
Location: Hygate Burnaby BC
Facilitator: Durante Kreuk Landscape Architects
2004/2006 – Khenko (Great blue Heron)
Client: Lt. Gov. Dr. David Lam
Location: George Wainborn Park , False Creek ,Vancouver
Facilitator: Susan Gordon/Board of Parks and Recreation
2005/2006 – Spotty the Dog
Client: City of Richmond
Location: Hamilton Fire Hall, Richmond
Facilitator: Kari Huhtala, Public Art, City of Richmond
2003 – Purple Martin Spiral
Client: Jawl Corporation
Location: Selkirk Waterfront, Gorge Harbour, Victoria, BC
Facilitator: Mohney Jawl / Werner Forster Arch.
2002 – West Coast Raven
Client: Sound Symposium 2002
Location: Signal Hill St. Johns Newfoundland
Funding : Canada Council for the Arts
2001 – Whiskey Jack Balance
Client: Whistler Village
Location: Plaza of Champions / Creekside / Whistler Mountain
Facilitator: Gwen Bowle/ Sarah Dobbs for Intrawest Corp
2000/1952 – Ford Grove
Client: City of Richmond
Location: Steveston BC
Facilitator: Kari Huhtala /City of Richmond
1996 – Wind Swimmer
Client: Vancouver Parks and Recreation
Location: Kitsilano Pool, Vancouver
Facilitator: Susan Gordon / Herb and Mary Auerbach
1998 – Mr. Lead
Client: Jawl Properties
Location: Mattick’s Market, Cordova Bay, Vancouver Island
Facilitator: Mohney Jawl / Werner Forster Arch.
1996 – Bill Mattick
Client: Jawl Properties
Location: Cordova Bay Golf Course, Vancouver Island
Facilitator: Mohney Jawl / Werner Forster Arch.
1992 – Space Center Houston
N.A.S.A.’s Museum, Houston, Texas
Consultant: Imagination Arts/Bob Rogers & Co.
5 figures: Life size superreal astronauts designed for Skylab and Apollo capsules.
Robotic movement in three figures.