< this is where my arm should be.

greetings internet viewers!

welcome to most everything i do. below is a collection of all the projects, shows and installations i’ve done so far. click on any icon to see more.

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what’s new… updated aug 30th 2010
quite simply, this is what I’ve been up to…

artist in residence – june 16th – present
doug rhodehamel tours central florida one resident at a time while living in a very modified cardboard box.

SPORE Project – ongoing
for the past few years, individuals, classrooms and organizations around the world constructed and planted thousands and thousands and thousands of paper bag mushrooms in support of art education and creativity!

LUMINEUX - may 29th and 30th, 2010
a living, breathing, art installation and performance featuring magical movements, mushrooms & illuminations. performed at the 2010 orlando FRINGE festival.

surrounded 2 – nov 14th, 2009
i exhibit 4 bathyspheres along side a whole bunch of great work from about 30 or so local artists.  it’s also my birthday. i turn 41.

DEEP BLUE – july 31th, 2009
creepy, spooky, bitie and glowie. DEEP BLUE was loaded with many many many scary hand crafted fish of all sizes and shapes created completely from discarded cardboard (discardboard?).

migration 4 – june 4th, 2009
cows and cows and cows and cows and beans and wieners and music and stuff.

fostercows – 1986 to present
the ever so clever and funny to laugh at fostercows! designed by doug rhodehamel and dan lantz in 1986 while bored in mrs. foster’s geometry class.

LARVA – may 26th, 2009
one giant 30 foot inflated larva with of music of A sissor

a.thunderstorm – may 1st, 2009
installation featuring a large thundercloud made from miles of discarded cassette tape.

cocktails & cosmos – mar 21st, 2009
a collaboration with voci modern dance featuring jellyfish made from discarded items and large umbrellas as well as an installation of large paper fish.

night of a thousand jellyfish – feb 27th, 2009
1,000 jellyfish constructed from a variety of discarded and surplus items – water bottles, plastic containers and other parts and pieces.

mobiles by doug
the following is a collection of some of my favorite mobiles.

migration 3 – dec 8th, 2008
an installation of 41 found objects resembling running german folk pants. made from painted steel.

migration 2 - sep 5, 2008
the second in the migration series, this installation featured a collection of 2000 badger-like clay figurines and was sponsored by united arts of central florida.

anemone - aug 22, 2008
an inflatable landscape of undulating illuminated latex tendrils.

soap henge - apr 9, 2008
a representation of stonehenge made entirely of both family and personal sized soaps. part of a group exhibition for the grand opening of bay two.

ufo2 – oct 19th, 2007
one really big spinning ufo.

ufo1 – sep 6th, 2007
one big spinning ufo

migration – july 27th, 2007
4011 matchbook camels arranged in a massive miniature migration.

the unfortunate guppy – may 17th, 2007
a suspension of fish featuring one unfortunate guppy.

10,000 paper bag mushrooms- may 11th, 2007
10,000 paper bag mushrooms installed across the lawn of loch haven park to promote awareness for the support of art education. a giant thank you to everyone who helped plant them!

fungus of the stars – may 17th, 2007
a benefit featuring over 60 paper bag mushrooms creatively modified by orlando’s finest artists, musicians, politicians, writers and other noteworthy peeps.

40440 – sept 21st, 2006
40 mobiles for 40 bucks. and cheese…lots and lots of cheese

doug’s 25,000 mushroom – july 12th, 2006
one night - one doug - one very big mushroom

SWARM – apr 17th, 2006
a suspension of hundreds of greasy hand cut scary biting fish

beasties – dec 2nd, 2005
evil illustrations by doug rhodehamel followed by pickle juice people and their pets.

junque – sep 30th, 2005
a miniature sculpture garden featuring the works of frank gady, kim jones, rachel lloyd, megan paquette and doug rhodehamel.

BAMBOO – aug 9th, 2005
a entire bamboo forest constructed from paper towel and toilet paper tubes, coffee stirrers and 4,410 hand cut paper leaves.

octopus – june 7th, 2005
a collection of drawings featuring a large number of ink squirters. the prints were painted with wine and beet juice and coated in polyurethane.

cucumbers in bloom – apr 2nd, 2005
large drawings ranging from a couple ghost to a migration of turtles… painted with a wash of coffee and coated with polyurethane.

war pickles – mar 11th, 2005
large drawings ranging from a squid with glasses to a cluster of abe lincolns… painted with a wash of coffee and coated with polyurethane.

art for asia – feb 4th, 2005
a reflief effort for tsunami victims presented by brett bennett and doug rhodehamel.

design night – jan 16th, 2005
wine, cheese, art, furniture and a handful of artists displaying their work. i made mobiles.

colostomus – sept 27th, 2004
18 feet of styrofoam goodness! the entire structure was illuminated with 50 glowstick giving it a slight ghosty appearance.

a multitude of miniature mobiles – aug 16th, 2004
21 miniature mobiles were hung in the main room just days after hurricane charlie turned orlando into a massive salad. As most people were still without power during the first reception, a second one was held a couple weeks later… this time with working AC and beer coolers.

egg. – june 25, 2004
invented by kim jimenez – directed by doug rhodehamel – presented by babaghanoush. A collaborative effort by many many many local artists featuring all that is egg . Below are my egg sculptures and mobile from the show.

ting – july 18, 2004
mobiles, tintinbabulation, books and booze. a nice collection of chiming mobiles built from painted plastic and aluminum tubing.

mobiles 2 – july 25th, 2003
a nice bright collection of mobiles made from painted sheet plastic. dad bought a bunch of pizza and fed everyone.

local papers – jan 6th, 2003
handmade paper constructed with bits and pieces or what makes orlando…orlando.

mobiles 1 – sep 27th, 2002
a variety of mobiles from fishies to ufos. many became permanent fixtures of the store… for awhile.

deep sea 3D – july 1st, 2001
colorful paintings of spooky deep sea dwellers in fabulous 3D.

dangermobiles! – dec 3rd, 2001
art that hurts! mobiles that maim! killer kinetics and koffee. mobiles with a dangerous twist.

frankenshow – oct 4th, 2001
you will scream…you will laugh…you will drink coffee… gaze in horror at a collection of 13 of the most frankensteinist things ever assembled!

coat hanger stories – aug 10th, 2001
coat hanger stories consisted of a collection of mounted coat hangers found in parking lots, presumably once used to unlock cars. stories based on the experiences of the unknown coat hanger users were written by local writers jim crescitelli, liz langley, charles martin, steve schneider and vivien thorp.

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BRING NEW OR USED SCHOOL AND ART SUPPLIES

Starting Aug 28th to Sep 10th

Haiti needs your school and art supplies!!
Please! School has started and most of these kids have lost everything.

Notebooks, binders, paper, pens, pencils, crayons, paint brushes, backpacks, clothes (socks, pants, shirts, etc), and SHOES!

I’m sure you have have some of these in your house! Drop them off at Stardust. We’ll be shipping off everything in a crate to Haiti next month. Anything will make a difference. Our staff will be waiting to assist you.

BUT WAIT!!!! THERE’S MORE!! Leave your name and email address and you have the chance of winning… an original handmade STARDUST PINATA!!! Oh yeah!!! I’m making a pinata for the big winner full of all kinds of Stardust junks and goodies! Drawing will be Sept 10th at 10pm.

Call us at 407-623-3393 for any question.

Sponsored by the Florida Farmworkers Association in Apopka.
If you wish to contact the association or donate money for the drive, please contact Pascale Vincent at the FL farmworkers association 407-886-5151

Morgan’s Residence: Aug 21st-Aug 29th

I am now at Morgan Kennedy-Watts place! I met Morgan a long while back during the time I ran an art house/gallery called BABAGANOUSH with a couple friends. Morgan is a blast, has a gigantic smile and wonderful to be around. Her apartment is small, so I set up in the kitchen…

Hmm… should I be scared? Come play with us Dougy… forever, and ever, and ever…

Morgan and I have opposite schedules so she is asleep when I get home and gone when I wake up. Tonight AB is asleep on the couch. See? If I was simply couch surfing I wouldn’t have any place to sleep tonight. Good old cardboard house.

Morgan has a son named Orion. He is here for the weekend and likes to wake up at 6am. He really likes my house so he makes sure I’m awake so he can play in it. Sleep is for the weak.

I haven’t really see Morgan at all this week so I make sure to get a shot of her hullahooping. Is that a word? Google time… oh it’s two words… Hulla Hooping. Anyway, she is really good at it and can do all kinds of fancy pants tricks. It’s been a swell time. I must now pack up and venture to my next place.

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Millicent Part II: Aug 16th-Aug 20th

Jeeeeze…. I’ve spent 65 days sleeping in this house. I’m back at Millicent’s place again. Needed to get some quiet time in and work on some of my projects and this is a good place to do it.  Probably won’t have many photos this time. Millicent has been working a lot this week and I really haven’t seen her all all. My car is in the shop again so I’m doing a lot of walking.

I haven’t had a chance to finish the animals for the last two houses until today. Still have to paint them, but here they are so far. I reckon I’ll need to make Milli a couple more to go with the other ones from before.

Millicent has a great backyard with a couple camphor trees. These trees are very common in Florida and attract spicebush swallowtail butterflies. There’s your nature lesson for the day. Okay, back to work.

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what’s new…

aug 30th 2010 - feeling a little bit narcissistic today.

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aug 25th 2010 – School and Art supply drive for Haiti at Stardust
………..Click here for more information

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aug 24th 2010 – new updates to SPORE Project:

new SPORE Project stats:

6 continents
14 countries
61 cities
118 plantings
12,903 mushrooms

Mushrooms in Mozambique!

Thank you Faith, David, Courtney, Eve, and Camille!

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aug 16th 2010 – new updates to SPORE Project:

Two new Countries! South Africa and Greece.

FINALLY! Thanks to Faith Amon, we now have a planting in the continent of Africa! Still need some in Antarctica if anyone is knows anyone there…
• Cape Town Mushrooms

And thank you Lauren Othon for planting some in Greece!
• Greek Mushrooms

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aug 15th 2010 – new updates to Artist in Residence:

• Chad, Dani and Stephanie’s Place
• Annie and Daniela’s Residence
• Brian and Yochi’s Residence
• Chad’s Flag
• Chesley’s Castle

Star Wars Celebration V

El Star Wars

by Douglas Hernandez Rhodehamel

Saturday August 14th 2010 – a gathering of a million nerds and I am one of them.

If you are a guy in my age bracket, 38-47, you are pretty much required to be a Star Wars geek. You can recite most of episodes 4,5 and 6, and can blow through trivia like wookie in a china shop… or something.

A few months ago I learned Celebration V was coming to Orlando. I was both excited and disappointed. I am completely broke so there was very little chance I was going to this convention. Thanks to a couple of old friends, (meaning I’ve known them awhile… actually.. we’re all in our 40s so I guess we are old.) I was able to go for a day. Thank you Dan and Tony! The 3 of us are BIG TIME Star Wars geeks. I’m almost embarrassed as to how much we like these movies.

Dan and I got to the convention center at 11:00am and spent the next half hour trying to figure out where the celebration was. The parking wasn’t marked well and we ended up walking from one side of the convention center to the other. It literally took 30 minutes. Way too hot and boring.

We got to the Star Wars side of the center which showcased a giant inflatable Death Star and tons of stormtroopers, TIE fighter pilots, nerds, dorks and geeks all trying their best to fit into their costumes. It’s an amazing site and always fun to see how serious everyone takes themselves. We walk into the main hall where most everything is on display… did anyone check my pass? No? Oh, glad I didn’t pay for it. Dan notices the George Lucas/Jon Stewart interview is underway so maybe it won’t be too crowded inside the hall. We are armed with only an iphone to document this, both ready to experience this wad of wonder. It’s crowded.

I’m greeted by R2-D2 and suddenly I am 8 years old again. I wizz AND poop my pants and suddenly I realized I am actually jumping up and down and clapping my hands and telling Dan to take my picture.

Seconds later, Dan and I spy a full size replica of a TIE Interceptor. Oh my Holy Crap. We both run over and drool. A lot. I want one. Can’t have one, but I still want one. How long did we stare at this thing? I really want one.

The convention center is huge and packed full of Star Wars EVERYTHING!  There are old toys and figures for sale as well as Hasbro®, Lego® and Gentle Giant® all showing off their new line of Star Wars Stuff®. There are life size props of Jabba, a Snowspeeder, a Landspeeder, a Lego® R2-D2,   C-3PO and Chewbacca. A mess of Boba Fetts and Slave Girl Princess Leias parade by. Photo op.

More R2-D2s!! (R2-D2 and R5-D4 to be nerd-like) Dan take my picture!

Hasbro has a giant prop of a Star Wars action figure case that one can stand it and be photographed. The end result is an image of you looking somewhat like a Star Wars figure. Kinda hokey, but funny… and somehow Dan and I didn’t realize we cut in front of about 50 people waiting to have their photo taken. Oh well.  Dan!!! More R2s!!! take my picture!!!

There were some good costumes. We really liked the odd and homemade ones. These are just a few…

Bossk! Empire represent!!!  No Dengar costumes?

X-wing girl! I think this was our favorite.

I don’t even know. But he made us laugh.
Congratulations for making the blog.

What the… Wait a minute!! Where are all the Landos? And Lobots? This is the 30th anniversary of The Empire Strikes Back… not one Agnaught!! Okay, I’ve only been here one day, maybe there where some on the other days. Maybe I just wasn’t here on Lando Day. OhLando.

As we worked back into the center of the room we found all kinds of neat little pockets of nerdom. Hasbro had a bunch of diaramas. I’m wondering why I’m not making them for a living. I’ll call Star Wars tomorrow.

There were a couple of toasters for sale which scorch the image of Darth Vader into your toast. Ah..what a nerdly way to start the day. Now I feel like an idiot for eating regular toast. Breakfast shall never be the same.

There were a bunch of… whatever you call them.. those board you stick your face through and take a picture. This is what we looked like.

We found a section of Star Wars artwork… Really great stuff. This one made us laugh a lot. I love the photo in the back of the wookies in Paris… their hair blowing in the wind.

3 hours later Dan and I are pretty much finished with this room by now.
Dan stops at the ATM…

…and I get my picture taken with another R2-D2.

Speaking of R2-D2, the next hall we visit is CLOGGED with 72 R2-D2s!!!! This is the R2-D2 Builders Club and there are some serious droids here. I don’t know what I’m going to do. I surround by R2 units. The are everywhere. I am in Heaven. If I was much younger, I would have died instantly from excitement. I’m 41 now, so I’ll just have a minor stroke and wet my pants some more.

I’m not sure how long we stayed in there. It was awhile. Just as we think about leaving the celebration, our other friend Tony arrives. We catch a second wind and start all over. This time we go through everything with a fine toothed comb as is Tony’s style.

There is a mock up of the interior of the Millenium Falcon. We pose by the holochess board and Tony adds holographic chess pieces via Photoshop because we are geeks and that is what we do. I’m sitting next to R2. I really like the fact there in a chess board on a starship. “Oh I’m so bored flying around the galaxy. Who wants to play chess?” Tony looses the game and pulls R2′s arms out of his sockets.

We revisit everything we saw before and see more stuff we haven’t. Eventually Dan and I decide it’s time to go home.

… or do we? “Oh Crap!!!” Dan screams, “We’re only halfway done!!” Yep. we turn the corner to fine a rather large Imperial Walker and more Star Wars fans milling about. We are exhausted, but catch a third wind.

The first thing we wander into is the Echo Base Ice Bar presented by G4. It is foggy and white with a couple of Wampa and Taun Taun ice sculptures. It’s sorta cool and sorta odd. There is a window overlooking the second main room. It appears to be full of Celebration V merchandise. Too tired to figure that one out or to drink so we move on.

I photograph Dan high-fiving a life-sized Wampa. He insists he has now set a new trend for Wampa photography. He is correct. Everyone else starts taking photographs of themselves high-fiving the Wampa.

We haven’t eaten all day and are feet are killing us, I’m sure there is more to see but really glad we got to experience this whole thing. It won’t happen again anytime soon and when it does it probably won’t even be in this country. I count myself lucky this worked out so well.

That night we got our forth wind. We snuck into the Orlando Science Center and, as our tribute to the 30th anniversary of The Empire Strikes Back, replaced the Crosby Observatory with an Ion Cannon. After all… why would you want to look at stars when you can simply blow them up?

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Chelsey’s Castle: Aug 13th-Aug 15th

Chelsey’s Castle! Well not exactly. She is house sitting in a big old house and I am helping. Well not exactly. I know Chels from a mutual friend. Chelsey is also the one who made my “Home is where the House is” thing as well as my drapery. We are supposed to finish the drapes so we can hang them but, she just started a new job and we now have opposite schedules. Probably not going to see her much.

Here is the house at night. Just it case you were wondering what it looked like. Not very exciting. The next morning, however, was exciting! I attended the Star Wars Celebration V and completely nerded out!
click herd to read more.

This is the pool I didn’t get to swim in. Not a very eventful stay and I don’t even know who’s house this was. But I’m out now and off to the next place… wherever that will be. Going to Stardust for brunch first. Thank you and see you soon Chelsey!

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Chad’s Flag: Aug 12th

I messed up my housing schedule and needed a place to stay for the night. I set up at Chad, Dani and Stephanie’s for a second time. This time for just one night. Chad just got a giant Union Jack flag. We checked to see if it was large enough to cover my entire house. Yep. Let’s all sing the British national anthem shall we?  Click Here.

Thanks Chad!

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Brian and Yochi’s Residence: Aug 7th-Aug 12th

Brian and Yochi are on a cruise… why does it seem like everyone is going on cruises? So they are on a cruise and I am watching their house. Brian used to be my boss at the Orlando Science Center when I worked there awhile back. Yochi is an old friend of mine, used to be my roomate and guitarist for the girl punk band “Jeanie and the Tits”.  They bought this house not too long ago. It’s really nice and has lots of cool little oddities about it. I set up in the bar/den area.

Speaking of cool things… I’ll be using this a lot.

Sleeping here is a little creepy. There’s all kinds of scary things hanging on the wall like this.

…and this. What the hell is that?!! I can’t sleep with this starring at me!!!  There is a small door behind the laundry room. At night I hear noises from behind it. I don’t like this. There is a handful of sequins on the floor. Had they been there before? I don’t know.

I told the girls across the street about my spooky night so came over and we hung out by the pool. Somehow this made up for the scary night before.

The second night I woke up to more sounds… piano… singing… coming from the back room. There was a silk scarf on the floor. Had it been there before? I don’t know. I propped open the door and set up my camera to see if I could capture anything. I did.

The images freaked me out a bit. I ran outside and spent the night on a raft in the pool. I figured ghosts can’t swim and I would be safe there.

I was still pretty upset the next morning, so the girls next door brought their friends over and tried to cheer me up. Somehow it worked. I still had one more night left and I decided I was going to figure out who or what was waking me up at night.

I set up the camera and waited. And waited. And then…

Oh Man!! The ghost of Liberace! Or someone doing an awesome impression of him. I should have known! Well that explains all the sequins and gloves and furs and glitter and capes and boots and tiaras I keep find laying around. I fall asleep to the sweet tunes of Liberace and dream of simpler times, times when men could wear sequins, gloves, furs, glitter, capes, boots and tiaras. Good night sweet prince!

Okay. Seriously. Enough of the piano. Enough of the singing. How many pillows and beer bottles do I need to throw at your ghostly ass!!!! I haven’t slept in 3 days!! STOP!!

Brian and Yochi come back from their cruise. Yochi looks gassy in every photo I have of her. It’s a bit awkward to do the whole “Welcome back from your vacation, by the way, in case you didn’t already know, your house is haunted by the ghost of Liberace” thing. I think I’ll wait till they get a bit settled in and then tell them.

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Annie & Daniela’s Residence: Aug 4th-Aug 7th

I met Annie and Daniela a little over a year ago at Stardust Video & Coffee. They had just moved in down the street and said they would be here a lot studying for school. Annie, the Ohioan has already been featured a few times in previous postings. Daniela is a beautiful chicka from Veneuela. They put me in the tiny room which used to be Agi’s room when she lived there. Agi is small and could fit there fine I reckon. I couldn’t get close enough to the house to get a good shot and had to shoot multiple shots and layer them. That’s why the photo looks so wonky… if anyone cares. Which they do not. So I’ll shut up now.

Stella! Daniela’s good little dog. She was there to help out with everything.

Ohio State shirt number 1. I promised Annie I would wear all of my Ohio State shirts while I was there. She is a Huge OSU fan.

Because of booze, the first night ended up being a late one. For dinner Annie made MorningStar Vegi Buffalo Wings. They sorta looked like Buffalo wings. They sorta tasted like Buffalo wings. Didn’t matter.

Day two, bloody mary’s and Ohio State shirt number 2

Our friend Pascal dropped by for dinner. Annie made dinner… mushroom tortellini and slice zucchini. Pascal, you look really scary in this photo.

Daniela didn’t want to be in the photos for some reason, this is the only shot I got of her. She left on a cruise the next morning.

The next night I came home to a bunch of giggling coming from inside my house. My house had become infested with girls. I’ll have to have it sprayed.

For dinner Annie made stir fry and mash potatoes. Really liked it and ate everyone’s leftovers. Agi was around and made a forest of broccoli in her mash potatoes. She looks like a very surprised muppet.

Ohio State shirt number 3.

Agi took off all her clothes and starting laughing uncontrollably. Maybe. Okay not really. She ran down the street somewhere and Annie and I watch most of the Three Amigos. Probably the best movie ever.

I don’t remember… did we get married at some point?

Saturday morning and it’s time for me to leave. Annie is not happy about this and gives me her best sad face.

Teal for you since you are a fan of the color. Thank you so much for feeding me and hanging around with me and I had a really great time. I hope to come back soon. I’ll be around to kill more flies for you too.

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