UC Santa Cruz Other Recent Work Title An Artist with Shoes On: An Oral History of Founding UC Santa Cruz Professor of Art Douglas McClellan Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9tn727hf Author Reti, Irene H. Publication Date 2014-12-19 eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California An Artist with Shoes On: An Oral History with Founding UC Santa Cruz Professor of Arts, Douglas McClellan Interviewed by Nikki Silva Edited by Irene Reti Santa Cruz University of California, Santa Cruz University Library 2014 This oral history is covered by a copyright agreement between Douglas McClellan and the Regents of the University of California dated November 16, 2014. Under “fair use” standards, excerpts of up to six hundred words (per interview) may be quoted without the University Library’s permission as long as the materials are properly cited. Quotations of more than six hundred words require the written permission of the Head of Special Collections and Archives and a proper citation and may also require a fee. Under certain circumstances, not-for-profit users may be granted a waiver of the fee. For permission contact: Irene Reti at
[email protected], Oral Historian, Special Collections and Archives, McHenry Library, UC Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA, 95064. Phone: 831-459-2847. Table of Contents Interview History 1 Early Art Career 2 Art School 6 Teaching Art in Los Angeles 12 The Art Scene in Los Angeles in the 1950s and Early 1960s 21 Coming to UC Santa Cruz 27 Finding Inspiration 30 Family Life 33 Oxford of the Orange Groves 35 The Early Days at UC Santa Cruz 36 Approach to Teaching 54 Finding a Home in Soquel, California 58 Token Artist in the Academic Senate 60 More on the Place of Art in the Early UC Santa Cruz 68 Moving into a More Verbal Era 87 An Explication of McClellan’s 2013 Show 97 Local Activism 104 An Artist with Shoes On: An Oral History with UCSC Professor of Art, Douglas McClellan page 1 Interview History Douglas McClellan arrived at UC Santa Cruz in 1970, where he taught until his retirement in 1986.