Dougie Padilla

{{BLP sources section|date=February 2023}}

Padilla was born on July 28, 1948, in St. Louis Park, Minnesota. He was taught music by his mother and became a proficient piano and French horn player.{{Cite web |date=2013-06-01 |title=Dougie Padilla |url=https://www.tpt.org/mn-original/video/Dougie-Padilla-611897H-1/ |access-date=2021-08-25 |website=Twin Cities PBS |language=en}}

Identifying with his Mexican heritage, Padilla traveled across the United States before attending Lake Forest College, where he studied for two years and became involved in activism through marches, picketing, and protests. During this time, he connected with Chicano poet and activist Corky Gonzales and other Chicano leaders. In the late 1960s, he trained with Reies Tijerina’s Alianza in New Mexico, furthering his involvement in the Chicano movement.

In 1968, Padilla moved to California, where he immersed himself in the counterculture movement of San Francisco and Berkeley. He studied spirituality under figures such as Ram Das,{{Cite news |last=Kronsberg |first=Matthew |date=2019-08-09 |title=A Road Trip With Retro Charm—and a Car to Match |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-road-trip-with-retro-charmand-a-car-to-match-11565352147 |access-date= |work=Wall Street Journal |language=en-US |issn=0099-9660}} Swami Muktananda, and Suzuki Roshi. Following his first heart failure at the age of 20, Padilla’s interest in spirituality deepened.

During the late 1970s, Padilla collaborated with poet and activist Robert Bly, who became a mentor to him. Together, they helped establish the mythopoetic men’s movement, which aimed to explore masculinity through myth, poetry, and personal growth.

Mexican influence is present throughout Padilla's art, which has evolved through multiple phases. He began with music and poetry as a youth, then moved to mask making and drawing, before transitioning to painting, ceramics, and printmaking.[https://video.pbsnc.org/video/wedu-arts-plus-320-dougie-padilla/. "320: Dougie Padilla."] WEDU Arts Plus, Season 3, Episode 20, PBS NC, 2014-07-03.

By 1992, he had moved on to ritual artwork.{{Cite web |last=Harper |first=Nick |title=Solo Exhibition for Art Legend – Northeast Minneapolis Arts District |url=https://northeastminneapolisartsdistrict.org/solo-exhibition-for-art-legend/ |access-date= |website=Art District News |date=September 2019 |language=en-US}} Padilla was influenced by the Mexican tradition of Día de Los Muertos{{Cite web|last=Nelson|first=Rick|date=2013-10-31|title=Restaurant news: Chef Shack and more|url=https://www.startribune.com/chef-shack-parks-it-and-other-restaurant-news/229902541/|access-date=|website=Star Tribune}} (Day of the Dead) and the making of ofrendas.{{Cite web|last=Tundel|first=Nikki|date=2012-01-17|title=Artist Dougie Padilla creates loud pieces through meditation|url=https://www.mprnews.org/story/2012/01/16/dougie-padilla-meditation|access-date=|website=MPR News}} The Day of the Dead resonates with him due to his past ritual practice with Native American and African medicine men. After his father's death in 1992, Padilla began to create ritualistic works as a way to connect with him. His visual artworks often contain images of Mexican-style calaveras, or skulls, reflecting his appreciation for the traditional Mexican relationship with death. He has said that his representation of skulls signals joy and creates a connection between this world and the spirit world.

In 2000, Padilla and Xavier Tavera co-created the community art group Grupo Soap del Corazón, seeking to further the “Latinization of Minnesota and the upper Midwest of the USA.” The group includes artists from various ethnic backgrounds and origins: Latinx, Native American, African, and Euro-American.{{Cite web |title=Hilo de la Sangre (Thread of the Blood) – Minnesota Museum of American Art |url=https://mmaa.org/hilo-de-la-sangre-thread-of-blood/ |access-date=2025-01-08 |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |title=Things To Do in Minneapolis and around the Twin Cities |url=https://www.startribune.com/things-to-do/events-calendar/details/thread-of-the-blood/14234743/2024-11-08t10 |access-date=2025-01-08 |website=Star Tribune |language=en}} The collective is mobile and focuses on artwork that is easily transported and translated into different community contexts. As of 2024, they represent almost 90 local, national, and international artists.{{Cite web |title=ArtOrg : Grupo Soap Del Corazón |url=https://artorg.info/?page_id=7627/ |access-date=2021-04-14 |website=ArtOrg}}

In 2006, the group showcased two exhibitions in Valparaiso, Chile, including “El Otro Americano (The Other American)” at El Instituto Chileno Norteamericano de Cultura. The exhibition fostered connections across identities and cultures, supporting relationships among North and South Americans. Locally, the group has worked on the “Pepin Portrait Project,”{{Cite web|last=Olson|first=Mark|date=2018-05-29|title=New exhibit at Sower Gallery|url=https://www.swnewsmedia.com/chaska_herald/news/local/new-exhibit-at-sower-gallery/article_f7d0f65a-1400-578d-91d3-b8052362aaac.html|access-date=|website=SWNewsMedia|language=en}} photographing residents of rural Pepin, Wisconsin. In 2021, Grupo Soap del Corazón published a zine, “Fabulista 2,” featuring political cartoons and poetry by Padilla along with the work of other artists in the collective. This zine attempts to encapsulate the struggles endured by Chicanxs and Latinxs and focuses on the political uprising of the summer of 2020.{{Cite web|last=Grupo Soap del Corazón|date=2021|title=Fabulista Final|url=https://www.calameo.com/read/001627317cd4a59114509|access-date=|website=calameo.com}}

In 2024, Tavera and Padilla, alongside the Grupo Soap del Corazón, curated an exhibit with fifteen Latinx visual artists at the Minnesota Museum of American Art. The exhibit, "Hilo de la Sangre" (Thread of the Blood), featured topics such as blood as the "foundation of life," complex lineage, and the cultural symbols of sacrifice and atonement.

Padilla returned to poetry in 2019, publishing River Town{{Cite book|last=Padilla|first=Dougie|title=River Town|publisher=Luna Brava Press|year=2020|location=Wisconsin}} and Pepin Diaries{{Cite book|last=Padilla|first=Dougie|title=Pepin Diaries|publisher=Luna Brava Press|year=2019|location=Wisconsin}} with Luna Brava Press.

{{As of|2021}}, Padilla lives in the Northeast Minneapolis Arts District that he co-created and commutes to his studio, Dougieland Pepin, in Pepin, Wisconsin.{{Cite web|title=Dougieland Studios|url=https://www.travelwisconsin.com/shopping/dougieland-studios-297073|access-date=2021-04-14|website=TravelWisconsin|language=en}}

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Category:1948 births

Category:American people of Norwegian descent

Category:American poets of Mexican descent

Category:American artists of Mexican descent

Category:Artists from Minneapolis

Category:People from Pepin, Wisconsin

Category:Artists from Iowa

Category:People from St. Louis Park, Minnesota

Category:Men's movement in the United States

Category:Activists from Minnesota

Category:American activists of Mexican descent

Category:American anti–Vietnam War activists

Category:Poets from Minnesota

Category:Living people