Valley verve: Stress-relieving doodles have become art business

As far as artists go, Vern McClung is a bit of an enigma.

He does not consider himself an artist, nor has he ever studied the arts except for maybe in elementary school. His artwork is also an enigma; shapes and patterns that look symbolic, almost mathematical – but they’re not. These creations “came out of nowhere, at a time when I needed it,” he said.

McClung, 62, lives in Almira, Wash. For 16 years he farmed wheat, but in the 1990s, he went back to school to earn his master’s degree in counseling and began working at Almira/Coulee-Hartline High School. Change, college and high school were a little stressful for McClung, but instead of succumbing to it, he relieved it by doodling.

“All of these designs – more than 400 – were doodled during a three-year period of adversity in my life.” He feels it was an outlet given to him by God to help him deal with the stress.

It started when he was coloring with his grandchildren. “I found myself doodling long after their interest shifted,” he said.

Using colored pencils, a protractor or a compass and a straightedge, he began prolifically doodling. “Before long, my wife began to frame them. When they started taking over much of the wall space in our home and drew positive comments from friends and family, we decided to turn it into a business – InkyDoodle Designs.”

McClung’s son, Marshall, said, “When my dad first began drawing these designs, we thought he had gone crazy. He had never done anything like this before.” Soon, he began to see the value of his dad’s creations.

Marshall, who lives in Liberty Lake, wanted one of his dad’s pieces framed in a larger size to put in his office so he began learning how to produce them in various sizes with fine-art quality, and InkyDoodles was born. The designs can be enlarged into a 15-by-20-foot piece, and the work can be printed on virtually any media that is printable.

“Our goal with the business was to produce art that could fill a variety of needs for home and office décor. With over 400 designs that can be printed on any media at any size, hung either vertically or horizontally, and modified with customer colors upon request, we think we’ve achieved that goal,” said Marshall, who has many of his dad’s enlarged prints hanging in his home.

McClung’s work is uplifting and bright, yet calming, perhaps containing a residual effect of what he was feeling when he created them. Looking at his work is like looking at a universal language, somehow familiar yet new.

“When we saw how unique and captivating they were, we realized he had tapped into a hidden talent that was here to stay,” Marshall said.