Meet Doug Boyd of Artfully Rogue in North Phoenix

Today we’d like to introduce you to Doug Boyd.

Doug, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
My creative path began in the mid 80’s when I left my home in Lewisville Texas and went to work for Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus as a clown. While travelling and working with the circus, I learned about work ethic, culture, professionalism and how to get creative when you didn’t always have the perfect tool or ideal situation. For 13 years I lived an exciting circus life creating a family and worked my way up the ladder to eventually become General Manager in my last five years on the road.

After leaving the road my family and I settled down in Las Vegas, Nevada where I would eventually begin working with another icon in the entertainment world, Cirque du Soleil. In 2006, I jumped on board the creation of the show LOVE, which is a Cirque du Soleil production based solely on the music of The Beatles. By 2008, I moved to the show, Zumanity… Cirque’s more risqué cabaret style production.

It was while living in Las Vegas, I became very involved in the Burning Man culture and began collaborative work on two 20′ tall wooden Las Vegas showgirl sculptures. One would be taken to the Burning Man event and burned along with other wooden sculptures at the event. The second would be at the Las Vegas First Friday, a local arts & culture event that takes place on the first Friday of each month.

Along the way, I decided to step out of the normal “9 to 5” corporate world scene for a bit and bought an old 40′ Bluebird school bus, remodeled it, and had it legally classified as a RV (recreational vehicle). My family and I travelled and worked arts & crafts shows eventually settling in Sedona, Arizona. It was here that my passion for creating was reignited and I began the journey of learning to work with metal and wood more artistically.

And now, nearly eight years after moving to Phoenix, I have been able to further my passion for creating. For a very short time, I had set up a work space behind the Green Haus, an amazingly artistic and special store on Roosevelt owned by Cole and Dayna Reed. The building has since been demolished to make way for apartments, however due to the loss of that space I found the shop I now occupy.

Artfully Rogue is the business of creating art where you least expect it. I design and fabricate artistic and functional tables, doors, desk, water sculptures, and lights for residential and commercial clients throughout North America. I also spend a portion of my time creating sculptural art from materials like metal, wood and reclaimed materials.

Much of my inspiration comes while hiking, I hike locally all over Phoenix and have begun hiking sections of the 800 mile Arizona Scenic Trail. This past summer I completed 150 miles of the John Muir Trail in California.

In an effort to broaden my reach in the creative world, in January of 2017 I launched my YouTube channel also named Artfully Rogue and it has become somewhat of a portfolio of my work that has begun bringing future clients.

Has it been a smooth road?
I truly believe that real growth comes from the obstacles and challenges in our life. I would say the biggest challenge that I have faced would be the financial challenge. Knowing that I wanted to be an artist/creator and yet I still had to pay bills. After leaving the entertainment industry and moving to Phoenix, I started a home repair business which allowed me the freedom to earn a living and keep variety in each and every day. Gradually I began building custom barn doors, wall units and other creative projects as requested. I slowly took fewer home repair jobs and did more custom creating jobs until I knew that the home repair business had hit that tipping point and I made the fully transition to earning a living solely doing custom work for clients. Other challenges I dealt with would be the lack of proper tools, space to work, and just trying to keep work from drying up.

And this may be difficult to fully understand, however leaving the entertainment industry was probably the hardest thing I’ve done. For me personally, it wasn’t just a job, it was a lifestyle. Especially the time I spent travelling with the circus. It is a very family oriented environment, it’s a community of people from all over the world and we lived and worked together year round. We experienced holidays together, summer cookouts, the birth of babies and sadly the death of friends. So leaving that left a huge void in my life and there are days still where I don’t feel that I fit ‘normal society’.

Finding my place in a world outside of the entertainment industry, that has been my biggest obstacle.

So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Artfully Rogue story. Tell us more about the business.
My business name came from an idea that I had about five years ago. During a hike in Las Vegas, while on trail I happened across this amazing carving in a sandstone wall, it was an angel with wings, I assumed this is why the trail was named ‘Guardian Angel’ However it got me thinking, what if art was placed in very obscure places. Art that you physically had to make an effort to go find. Rogue art just placed in places you wouldn’t expect to see art. And so the name Artfully Rogue was born.

Artfully Rogue is about creating art where you least expect it.

I specialize in creating metal barn doors that have been encouraged to rust and patina which produces unique and, dare I say, one of a kind works of functional art. I tend to work within the industrial rustic styles and I utilize metal, wood and reclaimed materials for many of my projects.

As a company I truly enjoy the process of working closely with my clients. I communicate during the entire process so the client takes an active role in that creation process.

I believe what sets me apart from others in the custom fabrication business is that when someone is interested in having something custom designed and built, there is no layer between me and the client. From the point of our first contact, they are talking to me, not a secretary, not a salesperson,

I think that right now is a very exciting time in the growth of my business. I see the momentum picking up with the addition of my YouTube channel. I’m beginning to create a community of people that are interested in watching the creative process which to me is very exciting. This will also open the doors for sponsorship deals and possibly allow me the opportunity to do some travelling to events that promote the creator/maker lifestyle.

How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
Personally I would like to do more work on monumental sculptures and begin to travel to various expos and events talking to the community about creating as a business.

This industry of designing and fabricating custom functional furniture and or art is merging with what’s being called the ‘maker’ movement. All over the world, makers’ faires and events are popping up that showcase anybody and everybody that’s interesting in making and or creating. In my opinion it’s a movement that’s bringing some of the old school craftsmen into a community where they can pass on their knowledge to a younger and very eager generation.

Social media is playing a huge role in connecting the people in this industry. People interested in learning how to create can now just watch a YouTube video or they can talk to someone on Instagram or Twitter. People are connecting with the creators and it’s becoming more personable. Mentors and teachers are more accessible to those interested in learning.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.ArtfullyRogue.com
• Phone: 928-274-2697
• Email: rogueartist@artfullyrogue.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/artfully_rogue/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ArtfullyRogue/
• Other: https://www.youtube.com/c/ArtfullyRogue

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