Artist expresses opinion of life after atomic bomb explosion

Artist Doug Waterfield’s “Doomtown II” is displayed in the Main Gallery at Memorial Hall. The show has pieces of many different mediums and depicts the lives of the people in the doom towns, or survival towns that represent the actual survival towns created by the Atomic Energy Commission to simulate American towns that the Commission practiced bomb tests on.

Nearly every piece in the show has an exploded bomb cloud either as the centerpiece of the picture, or as a smaller background image. Waterfield’s personal statement found at the show reads, “Instead of being an instrument of unimaginable destruction, the bomb became the source of giant fire-breathing lizards, glowing killer mutants, creatures awakened from prehistoric sleep and a whole host of super-sized monsters.”

This statement rings absolutely true in all the works this show features. One piece in particular stands out from all the rest was an acrylic painting on canvas painting dated 2015, “Meeting of the Minds.” The painting depicts an meeting of six alien-like figures. Their heads are blown out of proportion and their brains can be seen pushing through the outer layer of their skin. It is a comical piece that has a whimsical feel to it. The facial expressions of all the aliens captivate the audience and the eye is drawn to all the bright colors, which is another common feature among Waterfield’s work.

Another piece of interest is titled, “Flamingo Atomic Cocktail,” which is an oil painting on canvas dated 2015. This piece shows what looks like an advertisement for the Flamingo Atomic Cocktail. There is a woman holding an alien ray gun in one hand and a Flamingo Atomic Cocktail in the other. Meanwhile she is being shot in her glass helmet by a ray of light coming from a dinosaur’s mouth. The painting is a strange, yet entrancing conglomeration of colors and shapes that draw the audience in.

Waterfield is a professor of Art at the University of Nebraska at Kearney. His art has been shown at the United Nations Headquarters in Vienna, the National Atomic Testing Museum in Las Vegas, the National Museum of Nuclear Science and History in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and many other institutions.