MOCA visit with Doug Eng
Doug Eng generously spent the day with Photo 2 and Photo 3 students, giving us a private showing and tour of both his current exhibit, The Structure of Nature, and of his studio. Doug explores endangered wetlands in Northeast Florida on his kayak and documents them. He then explores innovative ways to install his images to draw viewers into an immersive experience of the worlds he explores. He encouraged students to keep their gear simple and focus on what it is they want to say. He also encouraged them to make work consistently because it takes a while for your voice to emerge into your work.
Many of the students engaged in deeper conversations with Doug about his process, how he landed on a project, the role of equipment in his work, how he got his start. They were also very interested in the innovative ways he installs his work and his intent behind the installations. Other students wandered through the gallery, quietly taking in the large scale images of waste and trash in natural environments.
Students especially enjoyed visiting Doug’s studio after seeing his exhibit at MOCA. It was eye-opening for them to see his creative spaces filled with experiments, trials and errors. Seeing his studio gave students a glimpse into his thought process and insight into how a working artist explores their work. Teenage artists struggle with the idea of perfection and failure; one of the challenges of teaching them is encouraging them to take risks, to be okay with failure, to allow themselves to create work even if it is mediocre at first. Once they are able to start creating work that fails, they can then begin to problem solve, understand why their work is disappointing, and begin to push through those problems and grow. Doug’s studios gave them a living example of an artist moving through those processes.
