The art of
Collin Douma
the art of
COLLIN DOUMA
Amphibious Nature
Red-Eyed Tree Frog // Ford GPA "Seep"
2023
24"x18"
Featured on the cover of Chronogram Magazine, Hudson Valley's glossy cultural monthly, was a trip.
Climb the steep driveway to sculptor and illustrator Collin Douma's Boiceville home, then ascend the ladder to his crow's-nest loft studio, and you'll encounter these and dozens more fantastical hybrid animals retrofitted with the discarded machinery of human industry."
– Peter Aaron, Arts Editor
Cherry, like all red-eyed tree frogs, doesn't drink. She absorbs. A thin patch of skin on her belly, her seat patch, pulls the world directly into her blood. When the water is off, she feels it in her guts.
The mating calls went first. The males stopped singing; the females stopped listening. The canopy went quiet in a sickening way, even to this cheerful creature.
She didn't choose the war; she just noticed when the music died. Now she moves intelligence, samples, and names across the resistance. Wetland cell to wetland cell, she navigates degraded corridors where the water runs wrong and the air smells like someone's quarterly earnings.
She keeps her head up and her belly dry. And when the jungle finally sings again, she'll be there to answer the call.
It's in her amphibious nature.