Andrew Ortiz – Anniversary Art Exhibition – Artist Portfolio Magazine

5 Year Anniversary Art Exhibition – Artist Portfolio Magazine

Andrew Ortiz – Arlington, TX

Artist Statement

I started out my artistic career as a photographer. I began experimenting with computers as an artistic tool in 1994. At that time, I was using digital image-making in conjunction with photography, mainly as a way to conveniently collage photographic images and incorporate text into my work.
The images enclosed are examples from a new body of work titled Measured Disorder. It is a highly personal narrative of my struggles with seizure disorders. Dark in both emotional content and physical appearance, the images are computer manipulated collages of original digital photographs and scanned items that seek to express the intense psychological impact of dealing with physical challenges. I have had epilepsy for over thirty years and it has taken me this long to begin a body of work about it. A review of a recent gallery exhibition of this work referred to them as self-portraits, which is partially true since many include my face or body. However, they are also meant to express a process and an experience – what it’s like having seizures as well as the medical “measuring” one undergoes on an ongoing basis. Sometimes disembodied, sometimes clinical, sometimes mystical, the images attempt to communicate my varied experiences with epilepsy.
Although this body of work is intensely personal on one level, I believe that the struggles and emotions that inspired them are something many people can relate to. We all have obstacles to overcome and frustrations to deal with – probably not as dramatic as seizures, but challenges, nonetheless. I hope the viewer is intrigued by these glimpses into my world and recognizes themselves and their own emotions in some of them.