I Surrender Painting

For almost twenty years, Jason Orr has revealed his passion for painting, approaching it through multiple substrates, and has shown locally and at the national level. Orr was featured in the York Daily Record for his experimentation of paint on bathroom fixtures; including toilets. Or you may have met Jason at one of his four, shared studio galleries in York, Pennsylvania. He has made attempts to transfer his artist philosophy onto canvas, has utilized vintage toys, collaged fabrics, formed installations out of garbage and has even written a children’s book. In undertaking painting, Jason has mostly been known for his abstract expressionism and mixed media work. Over the last two years his work has become an exploration of representational and surrealist paintings on canvas. Orr states, “My work is primarily suggestive of a narrative, by which I find through the technical and experimental processes of painting.” More recently, he has been influenced by contemporary painters like Daniel Richter, Peter Doig, Kim Dorland and Kent Dorn. Jason’s approach is somewhat similar, building up a painting slowly, with a series of washes, drips, heavy applications of paint and his own imagined forms. Jason Orr knew of his attraction to art at an early age, having seen his cousin Andy drawing a cartoon, while on a family vacation. Instantly intrigued, his first drawings were caricatures of all of the students in his fourth grade elementary class. In high school, he had two separate mentors; one teacher pushing the technical and formal qualities of drawing, while the other was aiding him in the conceptual, personal investigation of his artistic aims. It took Jason almost ten years to go to art school, mostly continuing with painting on his own. He is now a senior BFA student at Millersville University. His plans are to attend Towson University and pursue his MFA in painting and ceramics. Not only for the pursuit of continuing to strengthen his own work, Jason wants to go to graduate school to become a professor. He realized his passion for teaching the first semester of his undergraduate studies. Jason Orr continues to paint and is preparing to exhibit in many upcoming shows in 2017, including the Made in Millersville Event, the juried student show in Millersville’s Sykes Gallery and Art of the State in Harrisburg, Pa. He will also be hosting his senior exhibition in the fall of 2017. Orr continues to live and work in York, Pa.