DOUG OHLSON


1936

Doug Ohlson is born November 18 in Cherokee, Iowa to Lloyd and Effie Johnson-Ohlson. He is the sixth of six children, two brothers and three sisters.

Throughout his youth, Ohlson worked on the family farm raising milk-cows, hogs, chickens, which were fed by the farm’s crops consisting of several hundred acres of hay, corn and soy-beans. During the school year, he was up before sunrise to feed the animals and milk the cows. After school he cleaned the pens and stalls, pitched hay, working until sun-down. The growing season was marked by long days of field work, planting, bailing hay, plowing and harvesting. When he finished the day’s work on the family farm, there were three adjacent Ohlson farms where he labored when needed.

Ohlson on his horse, Scout

Photo by Maria Arpino
Doug Seated at Bond Street

Photo by Maria Arpino
Doug in studio at Bond St.

Photo by Francis Barth

Doug with Robert Motherwell

101 Prince Street Studio 1968

Cherokee, Iowa, 1936

Photo by Maria Arpino
Doug mixing paint