ABOUT THE ARTIST

Doug P'goshDoug has been a professional artist and designer for almost 30 years. And he’s been painting and drawing since he could first hold a crayon! The art on this site features work he’s created for private commissions, gallery shows and just for his own pleasure. When he’s not painting, Doug is designing products or creating art for his wife’s company, Retro-a-go-go.com.

Doug graduated form the American Academy of Art in Chicago. After college, he worked in advertising and graphic design for about 5 years. Tiring of that profession, he switched gears to his first love, illustration and design. Over the next 15 years or so, Doug worked on commercial illustration projects and designed hundreds of giftware products. Doug worked on licensed products for Disney, Warner Brothers, Coca-Cola, Paramount Pictures, Mattel, Marvel, Viacom, Bath and Body Works, Discovery Toys and many more.

In recent years, Doug has transitioned to creating personal art related to the sub-cultures and the hobbies that he loves: all things tiki, classic midnight monster movies, tattoo art, hot rods, pin-ups, vintage men’s magazines, lurid advertising, vintage sci-fi, pulp mags, rockabilly, 50’s Mad Magazines and EC comics, cartoon surrealism, burlesque, 60’s television, movies of the 30’s-50’s, tin toy robots, side shows, men’s fraternal organizations, old model kit boxes, wacky packages, vintage movie posters, 60’s arcade games, chalkware carnival prizes and much, much more.

The pop culture of the 1930’s-1960’s is what Doug and his wife Kirsten fill their home with and it steadily seeps into his artwork.

As chief designer for Retro-a-go-go! Doug has created dozens of illustrations of the classic pin up queen, Bettie Page, as well as kustom low brow graphics for shirts, sun parasols, cigarette cases and hundreds of other products.

Currently Doug’s Ghoulsville wall decor line is consuming a lot of time and effort, due to it’s ongoing popularity. Doug was inspired by kids halloween costumes of the 1960’s and 70’s. He loved the graphic look of the old kids maks, not to mention the wonderful memories they evoke. Doug had a vision to blow the masks up to 2’ tall and turn them into pop art for adults to use as home decor.

Whenever Doug has any spare time, you can find him at the easel. His work has found it’s way into homes around the world, from England to Australia. He has exhibited at La Luz De Jesus Gallery, Creature Features Group art exhibits, Harold Golen Gallery, and Van Eaton Gallery, to name a few.

Doug’s work has been featured in many publications including Car Kulture Deluxe, International Tattoo Art, Ol’ Skool Rodz, Kustom Magazine (France), Kustom Magazine (UK), Tiki News and most recently in the book The Art of Horror Movies: An Illustrated History.

Watch for his latest collaboration, with Mondo. Products will be introduced late in 2018.

As for mediums, Doug loves to work with acrylic, airbrush, prismacolor and goauche. He will also work in digital form when the project necessitates.

When he does have down time, Doug loves to spend time scouring antique shows and shops with his wife, looking for vintage treasures such as old monster and sci-fi toys, vintage movie paper and adverising signs, pin-up art and other ephemera.

Doug presently lives in central Michigan with his wife Kirsten and dauchshund, Rocket.