Dorr's perception is infinite
Jake Dorr shows his world view through his artwork
by COURTNEY CLENNEY
There is no more land on the globe to discover and this saddens Jake Dorr. In the very early 1800s Thomas Jefferson wrote a letter to Lewis and Clark, imploring them on a mission to discover the West coast, to travel over the Rocky Mountains, thus leaving the US entirely. The letter, included advice to be kind and learn from the Natives they would encounter, but also comprised instructions that no matter what the cost, the explorers were to return home—even if that meant sailing on a boat all the way around South America to do so. When Dorr came across a transcript of this letter he grieved the loss of discovery, the loss of exploration that our generation will never experience in a tangible way. And so, he painted the Thomas Jefferson Memorial, in ruin.
To feed his desire to explore, Dorr seeks to create a world that only exists to him. He could paint still life images, but beautiful as they may be, he chooses to paint possibilities instead of realities.
Through Dorr’s art, you and I can discover the world he sees. “Things in real life can look really impressive, but I think it’s more fun to create something of what’s possible, of what might not be real, but it can be in your imagination,” he says. In Dorr’s imagination he sees the finished product of an idea hanging on a museum wall, but the potential for a new vision of something can almost cripple him. “Before I can make that come alive as a real piece, there’s a process involved and there’s a story behind each piece,” he says. Boxes full of files and files full of ideas and sketches continue to wait on Dorr for their breath of life.
The way Dorr speaks about art it could easily define him fully, but it doesn’t. After high school in Philomath, he went to Trinity Western University in British Columbia, Canada, where he studied art and religious studies. He and his wife lived and traveled abroad for a time. But then, in 2006 they moved back to Corvallis embarking on a vision they shared with some friends: to take spiritual things and move them into the context of Corvallis. And the church named Doxology was formed. A year ago he and his wife adopted a little boy from Ethiopia.
Dorr expresses his view of the world in a visual medium, but he experiences others views of the world on a daily basis, and it fascinates him. He works at Hoover Elementary School in the resource center with students that have autism. “I have a job that I don’t consider work,” Dorr says. “I want the result of my day to help as many people as possible to find hope in the world.” He is also involved with the Social Communication Clinic where he teaches young, developmentally disabled people to take on a new perspective and see the world in diverse ways. “Those kinds of activities are really mutually teachable, you learn a lot from your students and they learn a lot from the teachers,” Dorr says.
A self-professed follower of Jesus, Dorr’s ideas of religion bend the mold of some current religious systems in order to reach beyond the structure and boxes around which people have built their ideas about faith. He expresses a dislike of organized religion and the rigid and structured set of circumstances they follow. “I’m a lot more interested in seeing people seek a divine presence that’s not part of ourselves, it’s not part of our own systems, or our own philosophy, but a lot more about seeking a greater power, a power that can speak into our lives,” he says.
Dorr needs to create. He has to document life as it happens to him. “I think that’s part of what art means, [it] is expression of how we live life in the moment because everything can change,” he says.
Although our generation may not ever be able to claim new land, Dorr believes we are pioneers and cowboys of a different frontier—the digital frontier. A world so intriguing it consumes our existence, we become what our Facebook says. Dorr is using the digital realm to create art as well, with digital collages. “In modernity we’re able to take things that are already there and re-assemble them into a unique piece that totally has its own merit and its own soul,” Dorr explains. He also is creating with silk-screening, in which he may take a T-shirt that already has a design on it, but he puts something original over the top of it, devising a ‘reclaimed T-shirt.’ “I think spiritually and also in the physical life that’s what I like to do is reclaim things,” he says. “Why not give something a better purpose that has more hope, even if it’s a dirty T-shirt.”
A few months ago Dorr and his friend, Jake Dockter exhibited some collaborations at the LaSells Stewart Center. The theme of the show was juxtaposition of past and present. These pieces went through an exploration of history in contrast to ideals and objects of desire that we hold on to so dearly. Art has a way of bringing to light what people try to ignore or are even unaware of entirely. Dorr himself is sometimes struck by how dynamic and influential an artist can be—it’s powerful.
