“I’ve written on myself for years,” Lorenze said, adding that the writing was more than the typical reminders.

It also represents frustration venting and boredom.

“Somewhere along the line I started to extend this to other people and began writing on them,” he said.

Comprised of photographs of his family and friends, topless and covered in writing, the exhibit is all about projection.

“The writing began to shape itself around the idea of projection. How I perceive them, how I think they perceive themselves and how I think they perceive me. The writing became a tool to visualize all the stuff in our relationship that we put onto each other,” Lorenzo wrote in his artist statement.

Gallery Director Donna Lee Rollins, who manages the studio with Renee Lorenze, the artist’s mother, said the display revolves around Lorenze’s proposal that everyone judges everyone else. He merely put the mental thought into a physical image.

“This is kind of just an extension of his whole outlook,” she said.

Rollins calls it academic art, and she said it is meant to challenge people intellectually and emotionally.
Lorenze’s photography got people thinking and talking.

“A lot of times people come in, and they will love or hate Daniel’s work,” she said. “We are still trying to break that taboo of human form.”

Indeed, this “taboo” has caused controversy in McMinnville. Before Ford Street Studio agreed to show his work, Lorenze’s work was housed in NW Wine Bar on Davis Street. According to an e-mail from artist James Dowlen to Rollins, the art was located upstairs in a nearly hidden room.

“Someone found something objectionable,” Rollins said.

She added no one younger than 21 should have been in the bar, so it was not as if there needed to be worry about a child viewing the nakedness.

“We don’t know why it was [taken down],” Rollins said. “It was up one minute and down the next…We weren’t given an explanation. The manager was unavailable.”

The bar is now under new management.

Because it is privately owned, Ford Street Studio acquired the exhibit without worry about controversy over the edginess of the work, Rollins said.

“Written on the Body” will be on display through Oct. 13. The studio is located at 207 NE Ford St. and is open Monday through Thursday, 9 a.m. to noon, and Friday through Sunday, 2-4 p.m., or any time by appointment. Visit fordstreetstudio.com or call 503-435-1951 for
more information.