In her book, Old Painted Doors and Gates, Asha Carolyn Young shows a vibrant selection of old wooden doors and gates she has painted over a period of several decades. This is a playful, welcoming, fun, elegant, colorful, texture-rich presentation of the old doors and gates. Some doors are majestic and very large (old Berkeley front doors over 100 years old). Other doors and gates are cute and small, rustic and unique. Young’s palette is bright, cheerful, with emphasis on pinks (bright pink, bubble gum pink, salmon pink), orange, yellow, turquoise, sky blue, teal blue, grass green, lilac and deep purple. Highlights are gold and silver on the doors, creating a bright, sparkly mood. Some doors are like spiritual entranceways, with soft, featherlike brush forms over the wood.Young writes about her experience finding the first old gate when she was first arrived in San Francisco and lacked funds for canvas or paper. She writes, Perhaps there is poetry in poverty, if one looks for it. I found poetry when dire circumstances led me to painting on old wooden doors-objects people had thrown out. Young also shares thoughts on the symbolic aspect of doors and gates, which have enchanted her as she sanded, varnished and painted them. She writes: Doors are mystical passageways, gateways to transformation, thresholds to the Unknown. They are entranceways to new levels of growth and openings to Spirit. We wait before closed doors anticipating their opening, wondering, What is on the other side? We stand before, within and beyond thresholds of all sorts. We cross through many doors as we grow, live and experience. We wait for our beloved, looking out from our doors, and our friends greet us at their opened doors. Some doors, we approach with reluctance, yet others we run joyfully toward. And sometimes our life chapters are clearly marked by an old door closing and a new one opening. The book includes 25 photographic reproductions of selected doors and gates, painted between 1995 and 2018.Young is author of two other self-published books related to art, published by Flowering Light Books: Carry Your Own Joy: The Abstract Paintings and Life of Hari E. Thomas, A San Francisco Artist (2015), and Journey to the Tracks: Industrial Landscape Paintings and Sketches of Oakland, California (2017).
