Doug Randall
A Different Kind of Art Gallery
by Maryevelyn Jones
Fayeteville Free Weekly
April 24, 2003
Artist Doug Randall decided to turn his home into an art gallery and opened for business as The Rocky Creek Art Gallery on November 1, 2002. I drew Doug, a painter, while he and his wife Suzy told me about their gallery home.
The Randalls will host an Open House at Rocky Creek Art Gallery from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, May 3 and Sunday, May 4.
The Rocky Creek Art Gallery holds a variety of works at a variety of prices. Art gift cards and small pottery pieces range in cost from $5-10, while some paintings sell for $3,000. Suzy said the wide variety means everybody can afford a piece of art. “Whether they’re wearing it, eating off it, or just looking at it.”
Doug said that long before they opened as a gallery people were coming out and buying paintings off the wall because it’s so close to town. Doug displayed in several local galleries in the past, “and they’ve all gone under.” Suzy said.
In 1978 the Randalls moved to their current location four miles south of 15th Street off of Armstrong Road. Then they spent years adding on to their house. Using the occasional help from a roofer or plumber “Doug and I built it by ourselves,” Suzy said.
Doug calls his house “kind of an oddity.” They preserved some of Northwest Arkansas’ history by creating their home from many pieces of buildings around town. “Most of what you see is recycled.” Doug said.
There’s a hand rail down to the den that came from City Hall. They used a door from the old Heine’s Restaurant in Springdale. They even used wood from the Juvenile Detention Center and a Fay Jones designed house.
“We’ve got a door off the old Dream Merchant that was on Dickson Street.” Suzy laughed and told me “He’s always dragging something home, and I always try to get him to use it.”
Each room is a different level and every room is filled with paintings, wall hangings, and sculpture.
“I’m really proud of the house and the work that Doug put into it, building it for me. I always like to show it off.” Suzy told me she wants people to “see where an artist lives, how an artist lives.”
Visitors can drink a cup of coffee and bond with the artist. “Here, artists actually come out and visit every once in a while. They sit. You never know who you’re going to run into out here.” Suzy said, “We want everybody to feel at home, because this is our home.”
Artist Beverly Walker shows her hand-built clay and stoneware. Walker describes her work as usually as taking the form of figurative sculpture or wall pieces. She met the Randalls about five years ago and was invited by the Randalls to show at their gallery.
“I agreed because there aren’t many local galleries and I do not do art fairs.” Walker said and added that what makes Rocky Creek Art Gallery different from an ordinary gallery is the fact that it is an artist owned gallery, and is casual and relaxed.
Two other artists, Dick and Jeffe Okane, have watched the Randall home evolve over time. The Okanes are the original creators of prescription eyeglass window hangings at Rocky Creek Art Gallery. They said they can remember Doug turning the kids pool into a fishpond.
“Doug’s house is manic but not disturbing manic. It just wraps its arms around you,” said Jeffe. “They get to live with all the neat things people are exhibiting.” They can walk through the garden sculptures. The Randall house was “tiny,” and it has grown from 3 rooms and two levels to a dozen different levels. Jeffe said that the house is constantly changing and is like “a painting in motion.”
“It just makes sense to have an artist be a gallery owner,” Dick said.
Because it’s a home, it’s a lot warmer somehow,” Jeffe said. “It’s more participatory.” It’s something you can wander through instead of just four plain walls with paintings. “You get to see how the art works in a living space.”
Oddly, the Okanes knew the Randalls for years before they found out that Doug was an artist.
“He’s modest about his stuff. I love his paintings,” Jeffe said.
Dick and Jeffe thought of Doug as a carpenter. Jeffe said that she and Dick were shocked when they discovered that Doug was not just a painter, but “a very competent painter.”
One neighbor surprised the Randalls after the gallery sign appeared on the road by bringing some of his art to sell.
“There’s a lot of artists in this town and very few places for them to show,” Doug said.
“There are so many wonderful artists here in Northwest Arkansas and they’re not being represented like they should be. We’re just trying to do that,” Suzy said.