DOCTOR DAZED DOODLE DELTA

About the artist

Dr. John Day, Professor Emeritus in the Department of Oceanography and Coastal Sciences, College of the Coast and Environment, Louisiana State University

artist STATEMENT

Although this is clearly an artistic exhibition made up of many colorful mages, I have to state that I am not a professional artist. I am a systems ecologist and coastal oceanographer.

Over the past half century, I have studied coastal and wetland systems in the Mississippi Delta and many other coastal sustems worldwide. I traveled extensively, often with my wife Carolyn. We lived in Mexico, The Netherlands, France, Italy, Spain, and the United Kingdom. We have an abiding interest in art and nature, and we visited many museums and gardens. All of these experiences contributed to what you see.

A doodle is an unfocused or unconscious drawing made while a person’s attention is otherwise occupied; often spontaneous, small, colorful, and fanciful. I drew these doodles in pen and pencil beginning in the early 1970s during faculty meetings, graduate exams, agency meetings, scientific meetings, and other similar situations. They were subsequently colored using various media from the 1970s to 2026. I discovered that there was a wide variety of coloring implements held like a pen or pencil.

I don’t really have an artistic philosophy, per se. The best statement about my doodles was summed up nicely by my granddaughter Daisy. When she was in elementary school, she often wrote short booklets with writing and drawings that she gave as birthday and Christmas gifts to my wife and me.

One of these small stories, called Coloring with Boppa, is showcased in the exhibit, and refers to a doodle now titled 1:00 to Rome.

“Boppa?” Daisy questioned. “What are you drawing?”

It seemed to be a bundle of colors

“Doodling,” Boppa corrected her. “And I’m adding to my doodle from Rome. It’s not supposed to be anything specific.”

-excerpt from Daisy’s small story

I added color and images to doodlize her story.

A variety of factors influenced these images. During my life, I have spent thousands of hours visiting and working in natural systems. My doodles are filled with imagery of nature, especially of aquatic systems. There are millions of species on earth, and this diversity is reflected in all of my doodles. From trees, to fish, to worms, to phytoplankton and bacteria. Many of the doodles show processes such as food chains and moving water. They are filled with bright colors that come from nature and art. I have worked for years in South Louisiana and in the tropics. Color becomes more intense in the tropics - nature, buildings, and dress are very colorful. My wife’s fardens and those we visited in our travels were full of color. I am also strongly moved by both the color and patterns of art. Influences on my doodles include the great Mexican mualists as well as more abstract painters such as Miro, Klee, Kandinski, Picasso, Pollack, and Rothko, and impressionists and post impressionists including Monet, Renoir, Morisot, Van Gogh, Cezanne, and Matisse.