Rockford artist Michelle Dorr has clients around the country hounding her for dog portraits

By Paul Anthony Arco
Special to the Rock River Current
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ROCKFORD — There are animal lovers, and then there’s Michelle Dorr.

“I’m a dog freak,” she said, laughing. “I’d run across traffic just to see a dog.”

Fortunately, Dorr displays her love for canines on canvas rather than the busy streets of Rockford. The local artist specializes in animal and pet portraits. She produces colorful, realistic animal paintings (mostly dogs) using acrylic paint.

“I love all animals,” says the proud owner of a 12-year-old Jack Russell Terrier rescue named Tucker, and another rescue, an orange cat named Rudy. “But the dog is my spirit animal.”

Dorr comes from an artistic family, but her desire to concentrate on animals didn’t surface until she was in her 40s. The Guilford High School graduate got her love of art from her late father, Willard Dorr, a self-employed commercial artist and illustrator whose true passion was painting animal and human portraits. Willard worked from his home studio, where his young daughter would spend many hours looking over his shoulder, as he designed a logo or sketched out a portrait.

Dorr says her father was the creator of several well-known company logos including Nylint Toys, the Rockford Park District, Muller Pinehurst Dairy, Logli’s, Cardinal Glass and many more. Dorr says when she turned 16, her father paid her $5 to drive his artwork to a designer or printer’s office.

“My father also painted animal portraits, landscapes – he was always creating something,” she said. “His dream was to make a living as a fine artist, but he had to support family.”

Dorr never planned to follow in her father’s footsteps – it just happened organically. Over the years, she has taken jobs in art shops, sign companies and picture framing stores, while on the side selling painted objects and jewelry mostly at art fairs.

“I always worked part-time while spending the rest of my time painting, trying to make money from my art,” said Dorr, who, aside from a handful of college art classes, is self-taught.

In the early 2000s, Dorr finally turned a corner when she started painting portraits of her friends’ dogs. She eventually displayed some of her work at the Greenwich Art Fair in Rockford, where she met future customers who commissioned her to paint their pet. Dorr then built a website and joined Facebook and she was off and running.

Dorr’s work has appeared in pet food industry magazines, dentist offices and veterinary offices.

She has created paintings for Rockford native and composer Emily Bear as well as comedian Iliza Shlesinger, who was given one of Dorr’s paintings from the Coronado Performing Arts Center when Shlesinger performed in Rockford.

Now Dorr has clients are all over the country and the world including Germany, Mexico and South America. Many of her clients are strangers who found Dorr through social media and word of mouth. And many are repeat customers who have commissioned Dorr to paint more than one of their furry friends.

That includes Lori Piper of Rockford who has commissioned Dorr to do four paintings of her dogs. Twelve years ago, Piper’s husband, Bruce, hired Dorr to paint a portrait of their pit bull, Oscar, as a surprise anniversary gift. When Piper peeled back the brown paper wrapping, she became overwhelmed with emotion.

“I just screamed,” she said. “That’s the thing about Michelle’s work. You can’t believe she can capture your pet so perfectly without meeting them. I have worked in picture framing for 40 years, and Michelle is by far the best when it comes to doing pet portraits. She’s fantastic.”

Stationed in a spare bedroom in her Rockford home, Dorr works on two to three pieces at a time.

Working from a photograph or sometimes a projector for a more complicated project, Dorr says she can finish a 12-by-12 painting of a pit bull or a German Sheperd, for example, in a day. She says a furrier dog might take up to a week.

She begins by sketching out the animal but always starts with the eyes. And if you look closely at her paintings, you can see a faint image of the person taking the photo in the eyes of her canine subjects.

“I look at the eyes to get a feeling for the pet. The eyes are the soul of the animal,” she said. “I learned that from my dad.”

Dorr has a soft spot for bullied dogs. Seven years ago, Lori Piper and Dorr attended a fundraiser for Care for Pets, a local nonprofit organization. There, they met Hobbes, a pit bull mix, who had been abandoned, tied up in the backyard and left to starve. “This 55-pound dog was found weighing 20 pounds and only survived by eating rocks,” said Piper, who decided that night to adopt Hobbes.

And if you’re wondering, yes, Dorr has painted a portrait of Hobbes, whose health was eventually restored. “Michelle loves Hobbes,” Piper said. “She calls him her boyfriend.”

Dorr’s father died before he could see his daughter blossom in her work. But she knows he would be proud of the artist she’s become.

“I love the reaction I get in making people happy,” she said. “I’ve had grown men crying when they pick up their painting.

“I’m inspired by the connection people have with their pets and the stories these animals have to tell. That’s what keeps me going.”

Contact | Michelle Dorr

On social: Facebook.com/michelledorrdogpainter

Email: michelledorrartist@gmail.com

This article is by freelance journalist Paul Anthony Arco. Email feedback to news@rockrivercurrent.com.