Douglas Sheran
b. 1941, California ∙ CE artist from 1984 - 2008
Douglas Sheran (b. 1941, California) was a multimedia artist with worldwide acclaim. He was a practicing artist at Creativity Explored for two and a half decades, and the strength of his presence is remembered by many in the CE community. An explorer of many mediums, Sheran rendered figures and animals in pencil, ink, pastels, acrylics, watercolors, and ceramics—stylistically capturing the strength and essence of his subjects.
Those who worked with Sheran speak lovingly about his presence and the banjo-sounding song he hummed, which was captured in an animated work entitled CAVE ANIMALS that combines his ink drawings into rendered movement. An artistic process he practiced often at CE was creating an abstract work from a reference photo, then using what he just created as the reference photo for the next piece, which his long time teaching artist Francis Kohler referred to as “a xerox of a xerox.” Sheran is also known for creating artists' books in which he either painted over the pages of a book or bound his own drawings into book form.
Sheran’s work has been featured in over thirty exhibitions nationally and internationally, including in New York and Düsseldorf, Germany. In 2023, a large body of his work was presented in the exhibition Figuratively Speaking, curated by Hilton Als.
Select Exhibitions & Projects
2025
“I Wish I Had a Window,” & Beyond Gallery, Oakland, CA
2024
“All Things in Motion,” Creativity Explored, SF, CA
“Lift Me Like An Olive Branch,” & Beyond Gallery, Oakland, CA
Outsider Art Fair, New York, NY
2023
“Figuratively Speaking,” Creativity Explored, SF, CA
2020
”The Park "A Darling Walk for the Mind",” Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA
”What You Do,” Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA and YouTube
2017
”facia obscura,” Jack Fischer Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2016
”No. 8,” Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA
Outsider Art Fair, New York, NY
2014
”Bookworks: Text and Art from the CE Archives,” SF Public Library (Main Branch), San Francisco, CA
2012
”I Have Never Really Taken the Time to Look,” Accident and Artifact, San Francisco, CA
2011
”SMALL,” Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA
2010
”Paper!Awesome!,” Baer Ridgeway Exhibitions, San Francisco, CA
2009
”"Science" Fiction,” Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA
”Repetition,” Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA
2008
”Fibrocosm,” Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA
”Tasty,” Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA
2007
”Super Heroes Super Villains,” Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA
”Seeing Memory,” Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA
”Shadowshine,” Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA
”Naked,'“ Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA
2006
”The Beat Goes On,” Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA
”Notables,” Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA
”Drawing the Line,” Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA
2005
”Revenge of Monster,” Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA
”Aliens: The Green Ones,” Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA
2004
”Spirits and Saints,” Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA
”Gesture,” Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA
2003
”Monster,” Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA
”Japanese Rock n' California Roll,” Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA
2002
”The Power of Color,” Creativity Explored, San Francisco, CA