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About the Artist:
Anthony Dortch is a trained, educated master of his own upbringing and environment. Dortch spent much of his young life in the heartland of the United States, Ohio. He attended The Colorado Springs School. There, under the influence of one of his early mentors, Judy Campbell, Dortch gave to canvas a theme that can be traced from his earliest days of expression…NO ONE IS ORDINARY.
Not wanting to be taken too seriously, the artist playfully reveals the many sides of life and experience thru the faces of reality, sometimes masked in uncertainty. His palette is clearly the world of experience. His work comes from a profound desire to match subjects to their feelings, those expressed and those that lie deep within. Hence, each image holds a glimmer of Anthony’s dream to paint personalities with broad strokes of acceptance, regardless how stark or bold.
Written by Bertha Gutenheimer
Artist Statement:
We all have our own unique hopes and fears, dreams and pains, talents and experiences. Those near and close to us, our family and friends, know where we’ve been, accept what we’ve become and, still, gently allow us to grow. Such growing space provides the unique opportunity for the extraordinary, based upon my time honored belief that ….NO ONE IS ORDINARY.
A combination of psychological intuition, observation and experience has inspired me to craft visual interpretations of peoples’ environments through the medium of modern technology and materials. My experiences have lead me to create energetic dreamscapes portraying an odd mixture of human composition, emotional experience, and surreal motion that focuses on the idea that people are connected to themselves, their experiences, and to the world in such a way that we are not apart from our reality but a part of it.
The evolution of my work incorporates the use of ink, photography, bold colors, and a buildup of brush strokes which combine with my familiarity with comic book art to produce images that focus on a variety of life experiences.
Project Description: Image Trip
IMAGE TRIP is a mixed media journey by Anthony Dortch into the leather community.
Summary:
NO ONE IS ORDINARY. Everyone brings a unique spin to life. What one person likes another will not. I have had the privilege and pleasure to meet many people in the leather community. I have learned of the stigma that is inside and outside of the community. It is my hope to continue to learn and explore. I hope to take this knowledge and produce an illustrative project (Image Trip) documenting those that support and are in the leather community.
I want to use my skills to allow the world to see the person for who they are – for their personality and showing that leather is only extension of that. There are many stereotypes connected to leather. But it is the person who is unique. I hope to bring a broad range of people into this project (from people who are into uniform, rubber, jock, nude, sex, bondage and etc.) – I want people be able to show who they are- just in a different visual medium.
If you or someone else you may know might be interested in participating – feel free to send me a photo to reference or a message in regards to dates to set up a photo shoot either here on Facebook or via email – dortchdesigns@hotmail.com
Project Description: The Privileged Series:
The Privilege Series illustrates what it means to be socially and financially above others. The underclass perpetuates the myth that achievement is possible for some, not all. Status becomes privilege and equates with money—new or old. The upper crust of such a society relies on minions, dropouts, and lower classes to get the distasteful and unworthy jobs done. Socialism and capitalism clash. This series brings to form in words, paint, photo, and ink the unspoken challenge we’d rather not hear – in pictures we’d rather not see.
The Privileged form an exclusive group, which contains at least one who benefits and relies on the public taking advantage of a portion of those less fortunate in society. The privileged don the ornate clothing and jewelry of money, beauty, and corruption. Their golden exterior and sky blue eyes belie any preoccupation with altruism, for commoners serve as mere stepping-stones to money, power and useless things.
The Purifiers are combative and aggressive superegos especially in service of a cause to right this tilted world, which is rife with impurities, sin, guilt and all defilements that color those who appear as different. This master race of enforcers has ice for eyes that are covered by the consuming shadow of hate and tainted gold for skin. Their unending battle is to rid and purify the world, by divine mandate, of all the Other vermin which infects the earth. It seems a never-ending battle….
The Other…is one or all who lack the wherewithal to fit in to society due to a substantial shortage of earthly possessions or status. The Other cannot camouflage their destitution.
These are nameless, voiceless faces who are surrounded by blue, like the sky or the ocean, forever reminding them that in all poverty, there is no way for them to go but up. Indeed, they serve as stepping stones in the babbling brook of life and the economy, walked over and upon by those so privileged to know the way to privilege is over and upon the backs of the Others.
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