Humans of Oxford: Doug Sloan: Creating an art community

Throughout high school Doug Sloan participated in an intensive four year computer and software engineering program. Arriving at Miami, he saw no better option than to major in what he'd spent his last four years working on.

However, as his first semester of college droned on, Doug grew tired of the monotony of computer engineering. What was once fun had lost its appeal. He began to think back to elementary and middle school, remembering how much he enjoyed all the art classes he had taken then.

Doug finally decided to make made a change.

At the close of the semester, Doug dropped computer engineering and found his way to into art education.

Now he spends the better part of his days working on class projects, toiling away in an art studio and washing out graphite stains.

He's constantly busy, but he couldn't be happier.

What Doug looks forward to most is helping young artists harness their passion while honing their talents, and he hasn't let two more years of college put that on hold. This past March, Doug's artistic knowledge helped him co-found NoTweaking, a multimedia art website.

"We aim to create a platform for young creative minds to collaborate and showcase a broad spectrum of talent ranging from art to music to literature," said Doug. "NoTweaking is not a product, but a philosophy, and a unique movement that will work to make sure the unique individual experience is represented."

Doug and his friends have grand visions for their movement, planning for it to evolve into a living, breathing community. Plans for recording studios, storefronts and product lines are cluttering the already ambitious mental vision boards of Doug and his friends.

NoTweaking is indiscriminate and features a variety of art forms from rap on Soundcloud, photography, drawing, creative writing and even professionally produced music.

However, the team is just beginning their endeavor, and NoTweaking has a long way to go before they finally reach their end goal of being a full-fledged artistic hub.

As daunting of a task as creating an entire artistic support community seems, Doug remains passionate and unhindered.