Van Gogh, Dali, Lautrec and Monet have come together in the insatiably captivating Photoart of Ken Dorr and Mario Marchiaro, otherwise known as Kenario. Partners in art and for four years, the pair travel the globe in order to capture, enhance and transform the treasures of the planet in an artistic approach that combines physical beauty, astounding creativity, photographic ingenuity and sheer magic.

Recent endeavors have led Kenario to successfully explore many forms of photographic manipulation, including painting over black and white photos, creating stylized portraits and generating computer-enhanced images. Presented here are just a few examples of their expertise in what Kenario calls Sculpted Polaroids images recreated by carefully employing small tools to manipulate the developing emulsion of time-zero film from a SX70 Polaroid camera. The process is excruciatingly time-sensitive; the technique, artistically demanding.

The end result are impressionistic one-of-a-kind photographic paintings, each with its own flavor, its own allure, its own power to propel the heart and mind toward the aesthetic. One of their sculpted Polaroids was recently acquired by Polaroid for their permanent Collection–a high honor among photo artists. Marchiaro and Dorr say they instantly” fell in love with each other’s art.”” I always loved sculpting and I always loved photography.,” says Dorr.

” How to combine the two eluded me until I met Mario and our talents mixed into our present passion.” We discovered soon after we met that the skills, we had been naturally complementary. Our deep respect for each other and for each other’s art fuels the passion we have for our work, and it is a passion that never dies.” says Marchiaro. The beauty of the world motivates Kenario to work unfettered in any way by traditional photography concepts.” With the right techniques, even individual or family portraits can be impressionistic art,” says Dorr. The artists also receive their inspiration from the eternal.” For us there is no past or present,” says Marchiaro ” The image itself -what you see with the naked eye- leads us to capture that moment of beauty and to make the scene we are looking at and appreciating a little more timeless.”

Most importantly, Kenario desires that their work be seen and appreciated. “Of course, we would like our impressionistic photography to be shown in galleries, but we insist on making our art affordable for people because we genuinely want to share our work with everyone”, says Dorr.
“The work itself deserves to be seen,” says Marchiaro. “A real artist cannot keep the work for himself; rather, the work itself must be loved by the creator and then left for others to enjoy”. Kenario’s future shows and gallery viewing are posted on their website: www.Kenario.com