Doug Young

Work with wildlife, or wildlife art - well, I guess I never had much of a choice really. I do very much like, and posses, art that is not wildlife oriented. And, I can enjoy wildlife away from the art world. But, the two pretty much dominate my life.

I would think from about the age of five that I knew what I wanted to do - work in the wildlife resources arena. All through my younger years, time was spent in the creeks, woods and fields behind my parents' home in Iowa.

My last two years in high school were dominated by science, environmental and art classes. I had the privilege of working with a very good teacher/mentor in high school who believed that science and environmental studies were very important. He was also a decent artist in his own right. I also had a very "hands-off" art teacher who was excellent and gave me great autonomy in the class room. Along with my family, these two men shaped my future greatly.

At Iowa State, I enrolled in the agriculture college and studied Fisheries and Wildlife Biology. The course work was great and I was able to shape the non-emotional part of my life when concerned with wildlife management. I was able to squeeze in two semesters of art courses that really opened my eyes to what I was doing right, and more importantly, what I was doing wrong.

After some great summer jobs and a couple of jobs with the Fish and Wildlife Service, and after graduation, I landed a job at a tropical fish farm in Florida. About a year before, I had submitted an application to the Idaho Fish and Game Department. In March 1987, I got a call from the Fish and Game for a temporary job in Grace, Idaho. It was my chance to go west, and I took it - and, I'm never going back.

The things that a born and bred flat-lander has gotten to do in almost eighteen years of career work has been unbelievable - including the time spent on these fish prints. The work with Sockeye, Chinook and Steelhead sometimes cannot be described to other people. They are magnificent survivors. Our work with these beautiful fish has been far beyond my wildest dreams.

But my passion and reverence for hunting, just being out there in the woods and fields is most basic for my artwork. I don't "hunt" nearly as much as I used to, but many other things have grudgingly, and happily, kept me away from the woods and mountains. My archery and rifle elk hunting trips are, admittedly, nothing more than "armed hikes" in the mountains. I don't harvest much game - I never have. Sometimes while in the duck blind, on one of those most perfect days, I will forget I even have a gun as the widgeons or the mallards swing in over the decoys. The time spent "out there" has been, and will always be the main contributor of ideas and inspiration for my artwork.

I hope you enjoy our artistic efforts with these fish. Our work with them in paint and pen is far from the natural beauty they posses. Take time to get "out there" and see these fish up close - whether it's at a hatchery or while trying to land one with a rod and reel. You won't regret it... I promise!

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