In the virtual art space below you will see a collection of selected works from Marcos Dorado's Immigrant Me documentary, both drawings and photography, and curated works from his general collection of artworks. To view this Virtual exhibit, please continue to scroll down. There are links embedded through out and at the end of this virtual art space to connect you to Marcos Dorado's website to learn about more and his work, and a link to the recorded art talk by Marcos on October 22, through the Ann Foxworthy Gallery.
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Marcus Dorado
Marcos Dorado was born in Jalisco, Mexico and immigrated with his family to Madera, CA in 1974. He was five. Marcos has always been interested in the arts but it's not until he was in his thirties that he studied formally. At Art Students League of New York and Grand Central Academy, he studied classical drawing, all of which was done with live models. In the past few years, he added photography to his work. People have always been the subject of Marcos's art and he's exhibited in New York City, Chicago, LA and San Francisco among other cities. He's been working on a documentary photography titled, Immigrant Me, a collection of photos and stories of immigrants from various counties. This will resume after the pandemic. Currently, he's developing a series of editorials, also known as photo essays. Each editorial consists of a photo series and interview or article about the person photographed. Some are posted on his blog while others are awaiting publication in magazines.
Marcos enjoys travel, running and reading. In addition, he speaks Spanish and French. He lives in Fresno and keeps a close relationship with his three sons. Lastly, Marcos misses concerts during this wild 2020."
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Me, The Mexican Boy, The American Artist
Charcoal, White Chalk & Pastel on Toned Paper
24in x 18in, 2017
The concept for Immigrant Me grew from the strong negative national rhetoric against immigrants. Certainly, the current presidential administration fuels adverse sentiments and it trickles down to media outlets that support the White House’s position. In an effort to create a counterpoint to the anti-immigrant sentiment, I created this documentary. The goal of Immigrant Me is to promote the positive side of immigration with the aim of informing those who only view the negative in us immigrants. The solo exhibit at the Fresno Art Museum featured 25 portraits and stories of trials, failures, fear, courage and success as shared by each person who posed. This drawing is a sort of autobiography. At its core, it’s a self-portrait. It’s also a document sharing what an immigrant and family go through. You’ll see a letter from my father to my mother, a Mexican bus ticket, a racist sign that was common in Fresno up until the late 60s, a work permit which my dad wanted but had no legal way of obtaining, my marbles from childhood and two of the pencil that I used for drawing this portrait.
Sandra
Charcoal & Graphite on Canvas
48in x 36in 2017
Sandra was born in Guadalajara, Jalisco and arrived in the US in 1991. She was twelve. The following is part of her story as presented at The Fresno Art Museum, 2018. Since then, she remarried and continues to attend college. Her sons are doing well in school and she continues employed at the same workplace.
Reason for immigration? Sexual abuse
What is a memorable experience upon your arrival? My first bath, in a Holiday Inn hotel after walking through a sewer tunnel and running across a beautiful freeway full of green trees and flowers... a promise of what was ahead of me in this new country.
What has been an important lesson as you became an American? I have evolved to fit in, grown and exceeded my goals. American not quite yet, but this is my life and I have learned to love this country, to hold on to my roots and pass on tradition to my American children. My life as an American has definitely merged into the American way with a Mexican heart.
What do you do now? I am the director of a multi million company! Who would have thought?! In my spare time I like to do artistic modeling. I am also a student. I returned to school, after 13 years, to pursue my dream of becoming a doctor. I am 5 years in out of 12. Most importantly I do kid-raising. This has been by far my biggest challenge, 3 boys is no joke.
What is an important goal? I want my son's to be independent, great and amazing at all they do. I want to teach them that all is achievable but they have to work for it. I want them to truly learn the power of hard work and effort.
What's something that you'd like people to know about you? This is it. I have no filters. I am brutally honest, curse like a pirate and have taken each year, each experience and every person in my life to learn and love. I made myself. I pursue to be the best at all I do and definitely push those around me to do the same. For the most part it is an aggressive shove. I am in love with my sons and I am learning to love who I've become everyday. After 27 years a better promise did arrive.
Fabio
Graphite, Charcoal, Conte & Ink on Canvas
48in x 36in, 2017, Permanent Collection of The Fresno Art Museum
Fabio immigrated with his mother from Honduras. His mother had married a Croatian national and together, they settled in Louisiana in 1991. He was a boy, then. Eventually, the family moved to California. Here is the Q&A that was part of the exhibit at the Fresno Art Museum:
Reason for immigrating? My mother wanted her son to have a life she knew didn't exist in our country
What is a memorable experience upon your arrival? It was definitely the moment I stepped into my own room that was already filled with dozens of toys and all the video games I could imagine. It was amazing.
What has been an important lesson as you became an American? One thing the US taught me is everyone is different and the beauty behind that.
What do you do now? DJ, entrepreneur, travel
What is an important goal? My goal is to be a successful business owner and be able to get the rest of my family out of poverty.
What's something that you'd like people to know about you? Life is too short to be consumed with the atrocities of the world. I always stay positive and use life as an outlet of infinite knowledge. In my opinion, that's what makes this country so great…the vast differences that compose us all in this collage of life.
Mi Madre (My Mother)
Charcoal & White Chalk on Toned Paper
14in x 11in, 2017
For years, I badgered my mother to sit for a portrait. She detests taking photos and felt similarly about posing for a drawing. Finally, she agreed after I suggested that she could simply sit and knit, given that she’s a seamstress. We talked away as I began to scribble on my paper. I worked in charcoal and white chalk on a toned paper that is no longer made, unfortunately. The New Jersey company has discontinued it. Now, I use primarily French and Italian paper. My mother is 72 years old. She was born into grave poverty and I’m lucky that she survived childhood. My grandmother gave birth to fifteen babies but only six lived to be adults. Malnutrition was a serious issue in northern Jalisco, indeed. Like me, she’s lived in the US since 1974. She took classes to learn English and is able to understand some. She has a green thumb and is always ready to feed you upon a visit. In the past two years, I’ve made a point to learn her recipes. Many are unique to our native region of Mexico. This fall will be the second Christmas that I’ll make tamales under her supervision. It’ll be a little different as we’ll wear those necessary masks.
La Muerte de Una Inmigrante
Charcoal & White Chalk on Mi-Tientes Paper,
16in x 20in, 2020
The young lady’s face is inspired by a relative who came from my native Jalisco and passed away in Madera, California. How many immigrants have died without coming close to catching a glimpse of the American dream. Instead, they pass away without much of a mark beyond the few loved ones that may already be in this country.
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Melinda
Digital Image, 2018
I met Melinda at a Starbucks in Livermore where I was working on a drawing. (Many who I meet at cafes become my models and/or collectors of my work). Melinda has a kind heart and a wonderful spirit. It turns out that she was born in Slovakia and came to the US in the early 90s. She’s a registered nurse and has a great passion for painting. This was her first professional shoot. The session began in Livermore and moved to downtown Pleasanton.
Most people who pose for me have no experience in modeling. Fortunately, I thoroughly enjoy directing poses. My studies in classical art at Art Students League of New York and at Grand Central Academy gave me a thorough understanding of the human figure and how it relates to poses. I especially like paintings of the Baroque and Neoclassical periods as examples of how hands look best in portraits.
Javier
Digital Image, 2018
Javier has an interesting story. He was born in California. His immigrant experience is two-fold, however. When he was a child, his family returned to Jalisco to look after the family business. There, he was the immigrant...the American...who was learning Mexican culture. Years later, there was a robbery during which a relative was shot by the intruders. His parents decided to return to the US. Upon his arrival, Javier didn’t know English and was treated like any other Meixcan immigrant in the Central Valley. Slowly, he became acquainted with his native country and made education his primary mission as a way to help his family. He graduated from Fresno Pacific University and now he’s working on his PhD in leadership in education at Northwest University.
Angie
Digital Image, 2018
Angie and her family moved to Los Angeles from Mexicali, Baja California Norte. She grew up in the City of Angels where her father was quite strict. Recalls that one time that she was allowed to go to a club and was given a curfew of 10pm. Her friend picked her up first and went about LA picking up the others. By the time that they got on I-5 en route to the club, it was ten. Along the freeway, her father passed them as he was on his way to pick up at the club. She laughs at this now but it was quite disappointing that night.
Live music is something of which Angie is passionate. She regularly attends concerts and local performances. For her shoot, she decided to dress up in the style that she was never allowed to during her youth. This photo was taken in the alley behind my studio in downtown Fresno.
Lee
Digital Image, 2019
He had just finished his 2-year tenure as Fresno Poet Laureate when Lee posed for this photo. Lee Herrick is a well known poet whose books garnered national attention and he’s often included in anthologies. He’s also a tenured professor at Fresno City College. Long before his academic and poetry career, however, Lee’s life was quite different. He shares that he was taken in by a Christian orphanage when he was an infant in his native South Korea. Soon after, the Herrick family adopted him. He was brought to Walnut Creek, CA, where he grew up in a middle-class happy home. Through my conversation with Lee, I learned that there are over 100,000 Koreans in the US who have been adopted by American families. Sometimes, they’re separated from siblings and they never reunite because it’s often difficult to track relatives. Lee, himself, does not know who his biological parents were. Now, he enlightens us with his words through his poetry and interviews. In addition, Lee is working on a memoir.
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When the pandemic began, I stopped drawing because it is too risky to be in the studio for hours with another person. I explored new ways to still create art. I was already working with the camera and decided that the safest route would be to shoot only outside. Thus began my venture into editorials. As a series of photos, an editorial can be only photographs with a common theme, or it may also include text with each photo or an interview in which the pictures relate to the subject in the interview.
Here, I present two samples of two editorials. This image and the next the four pictures are part of my editorial, “Models in The Tower District.” This area of Fresno has long been the bohemian if-you-will district of the city. There are clubs, the 50s style Tower Theater, cafes and speciality shops. The photos feature closeups of models rather than environmental frames. Thus, the focus is on the models with the limited background being that of the surroundings rather than the feature being the district and the models a secondary element in each photograph.
Lupe
Editorial: Models in Tower District, 2020
Shirley
Editorial: Models in Tower District, 2020
Ali
Editorial: Models in Tower District, 2020
Alison
Editorial: Models in Tower District, 2020
Kyle
Editorial: Models in Tower District, 2020
Lupe I
Editorial: La Catrina, 2020
La Catrina has gained attention in recent years with the help of the rise in popularity of El Dia de Los Muertos (Day of the Dead). Last year, I wrote an article about La Catrina’s history and I shot an editorial featuring my fiancee, Lupe. In short, La Catrina is a reinterpretation of Mictēcacihuātl. In Nahuatl, the word means, “lady of the dead,” and it was believed that she presided over the bones of those who had died. The Aztecs honored her during the harvest festival which was in the summer. When the Spaniards arrived, the holiday was moved to November 2 and the holiday became known as The Day of The Dead. In the late 1800s, Mexican artists depicted skulls and skeletons draped in French-style attire because that’s what the Mexican high society wore. The message was that no matter how rich you were, you’d end up as bones. These works were usually lithographs printed in magazines and continued through the Mexican Revolution at the start of the 1900s. In the 1950s, Diego Rivera painted a Catrina at the center of an enormous mural in Mexico City. She draped her in a new elegant and more Mexican-oriented attire and thus the current identity of La Catrina was born.
For this editorial, Lupe and I shot at the Mountain View Cemetery and at St. John’s Cathedral in downtown Fresno.
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Amy
Graphite on Strathmore Paper
18in x 24in, 2010, Private Collection, San Francisco
During my last month of studies at Art Students League of New York, I was invited to draw, for one evening, in a class led by a friend of mine. Amy was the model. What I found unique about her is that during each break, she’d put on her robe and read a paperback book that she brought. She didn’t speak to anyone. She simply read and read. Perhaps, it was for a class or maybe she just loved the story. In any event, the session was three hours. I drew the block-in and identified the types of shadows on her figure. This allowed me to draw from memory. I decided to leave the drawing incomplete, in part, because I love unfinished drawings. Also, I needed to focus on the drawings for my own classes at the League as I finished my last month there.
Apple And Pear
Graphite on Strathmore Paper
4in x 4in, 2014 Private Collection, Fresno
This is a simple study of “chiaroscuro” or light and shadow. Literally, this pose from behind is called, apple and pear. It’s an obvious reference to the shape that both gluteus maximus muscles assume when a model stands in “contraposto” (weight on one leg causing the model to sway to a side as he or she stands). Think of Michelangelo’s statue of David or a teacher standing with her right hip jutting to a side, next to your desk as you write a note instead of paying attention to her lecture.
Death of Beauty (An Observation on Postmodernism)
Graphite on Strathmore Paper
4in x 6in, 2014, Private Collection, Fresno
This small nude is how I most often feel about postmodern thought. I am not settled with this movement which tends to have no real definition and seems to accept just about any creation as art. I am not one to assert that every work of art has to represent beauty. However, beauty seems to be one of the greatest casualties of postmodernism. As such, I was inspired to draw a nude, in a realistic style, at the moment in which I imagine her (beauty) dying.
Blanton
Conte on Strathmore Paper
16in x 20in, 2014, Private Collection, Fresno
Mr. Blanton Simmons has an amazing story which begins in his native Milwaukee. He was an outstanding point guard who started for Marshall University during the late 60s and early 70s. His stance against racism blackballed him from the sport and thus detoured him from pursuing a professional career. Now, he lives in Fresno and mentors high school kids, providing a program that coaches them in basketball and guides them in academics.
Si Callas, Participas en La Mentira.
(If You Remain Quiet, You Participate In The Lie)
Graphite & White Chalk on Mi-Tientes Paper
2015, Private Collection, Fresno
Karolyne and I have worked together off-and-on for a few years. I shared with her my idea for doing a drawing that would illustrate the concept of keeping quiet even when a lie has been expelled. Taping her mouth would be perfect I thought and she agreed. As she posed, I applied the two strips of tape after I had the block-in of her face. In this way, she didn’t have to put up with the adhesive for hours. Yet, I was able to realistically draw the tape’s subtle curve as well as it’s light and shadow as it rested over Karolyne’s lips.
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Truth
Graphite on Strathmore Paper
14in x 11in, 2009, Private Collection, Fresno
This drawing was inspired by “El Eleph,” a short story by the Argentine, Jorge Luis Borges. The aleph is a point in space that contains all other points. Anyone who looks through it can see everything in the universe at once and from all points without distortion or confusion. I figured that a simple way of illustrating this would be with a magnifying glass. Truth is an analogy for seeing things without distortion or misunderstanding. When you find it, you have clarity.
Los Secretos Que No Llevamos
(The Secrets That We Take With Us)
Charcoal on Toned Paper
16in x 20in, 2016
During the fall of 2016, I went on a 10-week road trip in the western state. My first stop was Angels Camp, east of Sacramento. I brought along “Fernando,” the human skull that I own. (It’s legal to own such an item). I gathered wood from around the cabin and I ripped a black t-shirt so that I may wrap it around the skull. The drawing is the product of a fascination that I had with the idea of how many secret people take with them upon death. Some, we will never uncover. This still fascinates me.
El Dia Que te Fuiste (Homenaje a Vanitas)
(The Day You Left (Homage to Vanitas))
Charcoal, White Chalk & Pastel on Mi-Tientes Paper
16in x 20in, 2017
Upon first glance, one would assume that this is a typical Mexican composition. Instead, it was purely inspired by the genre known as Vanitas. It was popular during the 1600s in Holland. The word Vanitas is derived from the Latin word for emptiness and futility. It’s where we get “vanity” in English and “vanidad” in Spanish. The artists who developed Vanitas focused on the passing of time, that everything comes to an end, all dies. To depict these concepts, the Dutch adopted certain iconography such as rotting fruit, dead animals (usually birds and fish), skulls, books, candles and religious figures. Among the foremost painters of Vanitas are Pieter Claesz, Jan Davidzs and Philip de Champaigne (French).
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"Thank you for viewing my exhibit. It’s an honor to be featured at Alan Hancock College who demonstrates a strong commitment to education and great care for its students. The school’s devotion to its community parallels my passion to promote art as a language by which we become enriched personally, communally and culturally. Please feel free to follow my work at @marcosdorado (Instagram) and you may also send me commentary or questions at marcosdorado@gmail.com."
Marocs Dorado
To learn more about Marcos Dorado click the links below
The Gallery is hosting a virtual art talk with Marcos on October 22, 6 - 7 pm. For information and links please go to our Ann Foxworthy Gallery Website on the next page. If you missed the date and would like to view Marcos's talk, we will have a video link available here, starting the week of October 26th. Check back to access the Art Talk.
For info on upcoming virtual shows and events through the Ann Foxworthy Gallery, please continue scrolling. Thank you for viewing Marcos Dorados art works and visiting our first virtual art space!
Thank you for visiting the Ann Foxworthy Gallery Virtual Space, Allan Hancock College. We hope you have enjoyed this virtual gallery experience.
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Image to the left is of the Ann Foxworthy Gallery from the exhibition of artist, Nancy Jo Ward's artworks and MFA project, 2018