Dora Martinez - Doram About - Dora Martinez - Doram

ARTIST STATEMENT:

The fusion between imagination and technology summarizes the message in my work.
Nature, city life and fashion are the sources of inspiration, the goal is to turn the simple details into new visual dimensions of light and color, to discover the infinite possibilities within an image. Utilizing the computer as the medium and Adobe Photoshop, Paint.Net and Paper by Fifty Three as a brush palette, allows me to take imagination to the extreme through digital manipulation. To capture life and nature uncontainable movement is the driving force behind all my work.

BIO:
DORA MARTINEZ – DORAM
I was born and raised in El Salvador, I started drawing at an early age and never stopped. When I was seven-eight years old I took oil painting classes and later engaged in all forms of arts and crafts as a hobby.

At age 18, after graduating from high school I moved to the United States to pursue my college education. One year later, I was accepted at FIDM Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in Los Angeles. After majoring in Fashion Design I enrolled at LACC Los Angeles City College and continued taking fine art courses such as life drawing, oil and acrylic painting, 3D design, sculpture, ceramic, graphic design and commercial illustration.

During my early 20’s life was hard and stressful, El Salvador was undergoing civil war while my family was living there. Adjusting to the American culture was difficult, I was young, isolated, constantly broke and totally on my own. Through this period the focus of my work was on abstract art with acrylic painting. I also spent a great deal of time doing research on philosophy and psychology which had a strong influence on my work and understanding of color as an emotional healing agent.

Few years later I finally got a break into the fashion industry, working as a designer allowed me to travel to Europe and Asia on a regular basis while at the same time turned my life on fast forward. Soon I came to realize that due to the high stressed, time consuming business of fashion actual painting was becoming more complicated, without the required time, working and finishing art projects by hand, became extremely difficult and frustrating.

In the early 2000, I started wondering, if there was other ways to approach art, what if I experimented with Digital Art? Could that be the medium I was looking for?
I started manipulating photos from my trips as well as creating pure digital images with Adobe Photoshop. In the beginning my focus was on experimenting, creating an extensive art library composed of original digital work. One day while attending a printing trade show in Long Beach California, I came across the Epson exhibition booth, they were featuring the Stylus Pro 9600 large format printer, from that moment I knew I was ready to move to the next level. Time was not an obstacle anymore, whatever I imagined, I could print.

In 2002 from my original images, I selected and printed the first series of digital art on canvas and in 2005 I had my first show at "Eccentric Art Gallery" in Los Angeles, people were intrigued by the fusion between art and technology, their positive response to the technique gave me the support and inspiration necessary to continue with my work.

EXHIBITIONS:

2005-2010
Eccentric Art Gallery

2012-2015
Los Angeles Art Walk at Urban Life Art Gallery

2018
The Los Angeles Theater Center LATC

2018
Art Share LA

2019
Florence Biennale Contemporary Art Exhibition

EDUCATION: