preston orr, 1968-2022.

preston received his BA at college of charleston, and did his graduate work at savannah college of art and design.  his paintings involve texture (often lifted from studio floors on fiberglass), as well as personal and found imagery, his own handwriting, and a shifting alphabet of shapes he authored. surface is key, and the more bruised, the better.  preston weaved his personal histories with a variety of materials: oil pastel, tissue and paper towel, coloring books, hay, and yarn chief among them. outside painting, but always related to it, preston was a skilled kayaker, fisherman, musician, and friend.

“when I am in the act of making my work, I have a dialogue with myself. invariably, I return to my youth to excavate certain memories (sometimes just faint stains of memories) to which I then assign symbols or characters which embody the essence of that memory. these memories, many times, seem random and painfully average, but the fact that I have retained these and not other memories gives them validity and weight despite their seeming mediocrity. … these characters become areas of safe haven or secured zones where I can regroup when the uncertainty of my present reality becomes too overwhelming. … I do believe the preservation and revisitation of childhood for the sake of achieving essence and purity plays a vital role in the development of my paintings and myself.”

-preston orr, 1997.