#8: Women of Discovery Mural by Doug Robertson

Layered stencil portraits of ten of our Women of Discovery were designed by Oregon artist Doug Robertson.

[Robertson] “Primarily I’ve worked with stencils, and so all my image development is through hand drawn, hand-cut stencils and then those can be scaled up and formatted to fit any size mural wall and then it’s basically doing the background and putting the images over the top of the background.”

The mural depicts abstract representations these women, whose discoveries have embedded their names in history.

[Robertson] “The images themselves are sprayed on primarily a black base to contrast with the bright yellow background, but then I’ve layered in close to ten other colors kind of over the top to give the image a little bit more depth and texture to it so it looks a little more three dimensional against the yellow the background and highlights different parts of the face and the different parts of the portrait.

Doug’s unique use of intricately cut stencils, spray paint technique and playful color palette, will make this piece a gem to discover in the neighborhood for years to come. 

Audio of Doug Robertson is courtesy of the DF Connection podcast by Dirty Freehub.

Dirty Freehub is a nonprofit based in Bend, Oregon that connects cyclists to where they ride.  With over 12,000 miles of curated bicycle Ride Guides across the Western United States, Dirty Freehub includes education on history, culture, environment and wildlife in all of their Ride Guides.  You can find them at www.dirtyfreehub.org

Find #8: Women of Discovery Mural by Doug Robertson