Old Painted Doors and Gates Written by Asha Carolyn Young

About The Author

For my seventh birthday, my father gave me a box set of oil paints and said, "Just don't eat anything," and I began squeezing tubes of luscious paint and dipping big brushes into colors. I still paint, now, with a variety of mediums, approaches and surfaces.

Born in Thailand, I turned to art as a bored, restless teenager when my mother suggested I take a course in Chinese brush painting. This led to a lifetime of enjoyment in painting.

In the 1980s, after graduate studies in cultural anthropology at U.C. Berkeley, I studied art at Laney College. I also took private group lessons with Japanese brush painting master, Kayoko Bird -- which continued for seven years. Today, I focus on plein air landscape and seascape painting, as well as mixed media abstracts. And I still sometimes paint on old doors...

As I share in Old Painted Doors and Gates, I began painting on old, found doors in 1995 after arriving in San Francisco. Looking for work, I lacked funds for canvas or paper. Then I found this rugged, old, abandoned gate outside the studio I shared on Natoma Street. I imagined the deep, weathered grooves would take oil paint nicely, and they did. The magic had begun.

My background: M.A., Cultural Anthropology (UC Berkeley) and B.A., History (UCLA). Author of two books related to art, both self-published under Flowering Light Books:

CARRY YOUR OWN JOY: The Abstract Paintings and Life of Hari E. Thomas, A San Francisco Painter (2015)

JOURNEY TO THE TRACKS: Industrial Landscape Paintings and Sketches of Oakland, California (2017).

Currently, I live in Northern California with my husband and pet family.

Overview

In Old Painted Doors and Gates, Asha Carolyn Young presents a vibrant selection of old wooden doors and gates painted by herself during several decades, together with an introduction about her painting process. This is a playful, welcoming, fun and elegant presentation; and the 25 images of colorful and texture-rich doors will inspire readers.

Young writes about finding the first old gate when she arrived in San Francisco and lacked funds for canvas or paper for painting. The found object -- a small "barnyard gate" -- provided textures perfect for painting over. Young discusses her painting process and shares thoughts on symbolic aspects of doors and gates.

Young is author of two other books about art:

CARRY YOUR OWN JOY: The Abstract Paintings and Life of Hari E. Thomas, A San Francisco Artist (2015)

JOURNEY TO THE TRACKS: Industrial Landscape Paintings and Sketches of Oakland, California (2017)

Description

Old Painted Doors and Gates, by Asha Carolyn Young, presents a selection of old wooden doors and gates likely to inspire readers to get to their own creativity.

Some of Asha's painted doors are large and majestic (old Berkeley front doors aged over a hundred years); others are charming, rustic and unique. Her palette covers a wide array of color harmonies with an overall bright and cheerful mood. Asha's doors are rich with wood textures, scrapes, nicks and sometimes scabby paint.

The author writes about her experience finding the first old gate when she arrived in San Francisco and lacked funds for canvas or paper. She writes, "Perhaps there is poetry in poverty, if one looks for it. I found poetry when dire circumstances led me to painting on old wooden doors—objects people had thrown out."

In addition to discussing aspects of her process working on the doors, the author shares her thoughts on symbolic aspects of doors and gates, frequently pondered as she sanded, varnished and painted them.

She writes: "Doors are mystical passageways, gateways to transformation, thresholds to the Unknown. They are entranceways to new levels of growth and openings to Spirit. We wait before closed doors anticipating their opening, wondering, 'What is on the other side?' We stand before, within and beyond thresholds of all sorts. We cross through many doors as we grow, live and experience. We wait for our beloved, looking out from our doors, and our friends greet us at their opened doors. Some doors, we approach with reluctance, yet others we run joyfully toward. And sometimes our life chapters are clearly marked by an old door closing and a new one opening."

The book includes 25 photographic reproductions of selected doors and gates, painted between 1995 and 2018.

Asha is author of two other self-published books related to art, published by Flowering Light Books and printed by BookBaby:

CARRY YOUR OWN JOY: The Abstract Paintings and Life of Hari E. Thomas, A San Francisco Artist (2015)

JOURNEY TO THE TRACKS: Industrial Landscape Paintings and Sketches of Oakland, California (2017)