ARTIST RÉSUMÉ

NAME:   DON O. THORPE
ADDRESS:  1087 SOUTH 1100 EAST, SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH  84105
PHONE:  801-582-6019
CELL PHONE:  897-8575
E-mail: donothorpe@gmail.com
Web Site: www.donthorpe.com 

 
PERSONAL SUMMARY
I was born in Southern Utah and grew up in Northern California. I studied general education and art at several California schools. Later I moved back to Utah and studied anthropology and art at three Utah universities, the University of Utah, Brigham Young University and Utah State University. Quite by accident, I was encouraged to enter a snapshot in a National Newspaper Photography Contest. I was surprised to win national recognition, and suddenly I became interested in photography. I enrolled in several University of Utah sponsored photography classes and so began the long search to find my artistic Muse in photography – a search that continues. Over the years, I have been involved with many artistic audiovisual productions and stage plays, along with my creative photographic endeavors. My most recent undertaking has been an on-going experimentation with Impressionist photography. I have finally found some techniques and approaches to Photo-impressionism that really works for me. A description of this approach to can be found at the end of this Résumé.

PHOTOGRAPHY EXHIBITIONS
Solo Exhibits:
GALLERY 240  – Abstract Impressionism
PATRICK MOORE GALLERY – Two Exhibits: Vive la France & Eclectic French Photographic Impressionism
UTAH ARTS COUNCIL – Photographic Impressionism
ECCLES COMMUNITY ART CENTER – Don Thorpe Anthology
LIBBY GARDNER CONCERT HALL  – The Middle East: People of Promise
SPRINGVILLE MUSEUM OF ART  – Joseph, Joseph, Joseph -- an exhibit commemorating the 200th birthdate of Joseph Smith
SALT LAKE CITY ARTS COUNCIL – Inside Israel
PARK CITY ARTS FESTIVAL – Rural America
GALLERY 268 – Black & White Utah
CARLING GALLERY – Retrospective
USU LDS INSTITUTE – Promotional Exhibit
INKLEYS PHOTO STORE – Retrospective
UTAH STATE UNIVERSITY – Master of Fine Arts Exhibit
BYU HARRIS FINES ARTS CENTER – One Man Student Show
MAGILACUTTY'S RESTAURANT – Black & White Avant Garde
 
Group Exhibits:
UTAH ARTS COUNCIL – Annual Utah Juried Exhibit
ART CENTER FACULTY EXHIBIT
NEW YORK COLISEUM – International Photography Fair
SUNDANCE – Hole In The Wall Exhibit
ECCLES COMMUNITY ART CENTER – Utah Photographers
MORMON FESTIVAL OF ART – International Invitational Exhibit
MORMON ARTS FESTIVAL – International Juried Exhibit

PHOTOGRAPHIC PRODUCTIONS
ZION – Multi-image production for the acclaimed LDS Church sesquicentennial stage play
SATURDAY’S WARRIOR – Photographic multi-image background for the popular stage play
STARCHILD – Photographic multi-image sequences and background for the stage play
PROMISED VALLEY – Multi-image background for the pioneer celebration stage play
THREADS OF GLORY –Award winning multi-image production for the stage play
ISRAEL REVEALED – Co-produced 6 documentary video tapes shown on broadcast television
IT’S MY LIFE – Multi-image background for the stage play by Lex de Azevedo
MUSEUM OF THE YELLOWSTONE – Photographic multi-image production
GOLDEN SPIKE NATIONAL HISTORIC SITE – Photographic multi-image production
LAKE SEMINOLE VISITORS CENTER FLORIDA – Photographic multi-image production
HIGH PLAINS VISITORS CENTER SOUTH DAKOTA – Photographic multi-image production
MAGNIFICENT HERITAGE – Photographic multi-image production for LDS Church
WIZARD OF OZ – Photographic multi-image background for the stage play
CITY OF JOSEPH – Photographic multi-image background for the stage play
HOUNDS OF BASKERVILLE – Photographic multi-image background for the stage play
PATRICK HENRY – Photographic multi-image background for Michael Bennett
TROLLY SQUARE – Photographic multi-image production for opening of the square

COMMISSIONED WORKS
Photography of historical sites commissioned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to be used in a multi-image presentation for the Church’s sesquicentennial commemoration shown to 50,000 people during a period of 10 performances.
Photography of the Holy Land over a period of four months commissioned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to be used in several international magazines.
Photography of student life to produce a large exhibit of photographs for a yearly open house commissioned by Utah State University LDS Institute.

COLLECTIONS
Works in seven private collections – including two Utah Arts Council members, a former Salt Lake City mayor, a former head of the art department at Utah State University, and an individual art collector in New York City, and works hung in a variety of private homes and businesses.

PUBLICATIONS
Author and photographer for THE AMPHOTO GUIDE TO AVAILABLE LIGHT PHOTOGRAPHY  published in New York.
Photographs featured in books about the Holy Land: ISRAEL REVEALED, ON HOLY GROUND and THE WAY, THE TRUTH, AND THE LIFE.
Published in magazine articles as writer and photographer: THE ENSIGN and NEW ERA MAGAZINES, CAMERA 35, MODERN PHOTOGRAPHY and others.

AWARDS

Utah State Fair awards from Best in Show to numerous 1^st, 2^nd, and 3^rd place ribbons
California State Fair 1^st place ribbon
Mormon Arts Festival honorable mention
Published in the commemorative book of the Festival of Mormon Arts
Mormon Arts Festival honorable mention – only photographer given an award at the festival
Sundance Hole in the Wall Exhibit 1^st prize (presented by Robert Redford)
Many National Newspaper Photography awards given in Utah, including one that placed in National competition

SELECTED REVIEW EXCERPTS
THE CATALYST MAGAZINE –  "This exhibit is a deliberate search for techniques to produce spontaneous impressionistic images and emphasizes the emotions with an inner sensibility rather than visual reality. This diverse representation of style and technique embraces the central idea of Impressionism."

SALT LAKE CITY WEEKLY – JACOB STRINGER: "...because this unique take on photography is, in essence, not about Puritanism. It's about a new form of artistic expression....something more individual, more personal, more impressionistic..."

SALT LAKE TRIBUNE – GEORGE S. DIBBLE:  "Mr. Thorpe has cultivated the faculty that Henri Cartier-Bresson has described as the uncanny ability to capture the right moment. Thorpe's landscapes are perceived with imagination and recorded at mood filling moments. His study of haystacks recalls the style of Impressionist Claude Monet. Though his images are of a different locale, the magic of sunlight is still there."

INTERVIEWS AND APPEARANCES
Interviewed on KBYU Television about photography and the Harris Fines Arts Center exhibit
Interviewed on KSL Radio about Arts Festival involvement
Lecturer about art and photography at BYU Education Week
Seminars on photography for Utah trade shows
Guest lecturer about photographic audio-visual presentations at University of Utah

COMMUNITY AND ART ORGANIZATIONS INVOLVEMENT
Writer for 15 BYTES an on-line e-zine for ARTISTS OF UTAH
Steering Committee Chairman for the Salt Lake City chapter of the Association for Multi-image
Instructor in photography for Utah Arts Council at the Art Barn
Supervisor for the photography exhibition at Utah State Fair

EDUCATION
Art program at Sacramento Junior College in Sacramento, California
Bachelor’s degree in Art and Psychology at Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah
Master of Fines Arts program at Utah State University, Logan, Utah

WORK DESCRIPTION AND PHILOSOPHY
My images are photographic by origin but impressionist by nature. They are created in-camera by using special digital techniques to infuse a special Impressionist feeling without the heavy handed distortion of digital software filter applications.

I feel that this impressionistic approach with a digital camera breathes some life back into the art of photography by giving it moving, living images that have a sense of vibrancy impossible with traditional photography. Not only is the process of image formation altered, but also the approach to seeing them, making a unique creation of imagery that blends with the light, form and movement of the subject.

Most of my photographic prints are Giglee produced on professional watercolor paper that further enhances the impressionistic quality of their presentation. All of the prints are uniquely matted and framed, making each photograph a one-of-a-kind piece of art.

My image development process seeks to be Impressionistic in its visual character and Expressionistic in its emotional and intellectual communication. My images represent the climate of the heart and the emotional state of existence that affects the heart. I don’t want to be an illustrator, journalist or even a pictorialist; my images make an emotional contact with what is around me in a way that echoes reality without exactly mirroring it. I express the positive facets of life and creation without demeaning images or sensationalist degradation – there is enough of that already in the world. I see life as a gift from God that becomes more precious with each passing moment, and I want to say with my photographs, “Life is good and God is real.”