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DOM OREJUDOS (July 1, 1933 - September 24, 1991)
The Artist, ETIENNE
Erotic artist, choreographer and dancer, Dom Orejudos, yielding to a long battle with AIDS, passed from this world on September 24th at his home in Boulder, Colorado. He was 58 years old.
As the artist Etienne, Dom's sexual fantasy art is known throughout the world and has been featured in posters and magazines for over four decades. With his lifelong associate and partner, Chuck Renslow, Dom created Chicago's infamous Gold Coast Leather Bar and International Mr. Leather, promoting both to world wide recognition via his artistic talents. An early pioneer in gay male erotica , Mr. Orejudos (aka Etienne and Stephen), was recognized as one of the great masters of fantasy art.
An accomplished dancer and choreographer, Mr. Orejudos was also well recognized nationally as a master of ballet. The recipient of three separate grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, over a dozen of his works have been presented on PBS television earning three Emmy awards. His ballet "The Charioteer" was created to inaugurate the first color broadcast of the Chicago PBS television station. Resident choreographer and principal dancer with the Illinois Ballet Company for nine years, Mr. Orejudos also earned critical acclaim choreographing ballets for almost twenty different ballet companies around the nation, including San Francisco, Washington, Sacramento, New York, Milwaukee, Omaha, Dallas, Atlanta, Denver and the Delta Festival Ballet in New Orleans. He was a judge for the Southeastern Division of the American Ballet Association. Mr. Orejudos' stage credits also include dance roles in the touring companies of West Side Story, The King and I, and Song of Norway.
For much of the gay community, and the leather community in particular, Dom will be remembered for his erotica. His exaggerated muscular imagery was easily recognizable and has been featured in dozens of publications, club logos and print advertising over a thirty year period. Dom's murals covered the walls of Chicago's Gold Coast Leather Bar, which earned an international reputation by distributing his work throughout the world's leather community in poster form.
Dom's long association with leather dates to the early 1960's when he and partner, Chuck Renslow, established Kris Studios, one of the early "physique style" photographic studios. Publishers of Mars, Triumph and Rawhide Magazines, Mr. Orejudos began his career in erotic art on those pages. Together with Renslow, Mr. Orejudos established a leather night at the Hi Ho Club in Chicago, and used it as a springboard to the establishment of the Gold Coast, one of the first and longest lasting leather bars in the nation. They subsequently went on to establish a string of bars in Chicago, including Man's Country Baths, Zolar, Pyramid and Center Stage, as well as clubs in other cities such as Club Baths Kansas City and Club Baths Phoenix. One of the founding members of the "Renslow Family", Dom inaugurated Chicago's "August White Party", now in its eighteenth year.
A world traveler, Mr. Orejudos was stricken with pneumonia while traveling in a 1987 delegation to China and Tibet.
The Artist, ETIENNE
Erotic artist, choreographer and dancer, Dom Orejudos, yielding to a long battle with AIDS, passed from this world on September 24th at his home in Boulder, Colorado. He was 58 years old.
As the artist Etienne, Dom's sexual fantasy art is known throughout the world and has been featured in posters and magazines for over four decades. With his lifelong associate and partner, Chuck Renslow, Dom created Chicago's infamous Gold Coast Leather Bar and International Mr. Leather, promoting both to world wide recognition via his artistic talents. An early pioneer in gay male erotica , Mr. Orejudos (aka Etienne and Stephen), was recognized as one of the great masters of fantasy art.
An accomplished dancer and choreographer, Mr. Orejudos was also well recognized nationally as a master of ballet. The recipient of three separate grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, over a dozen of his works have been presented on PBS television earning three Emmy awards. His ballet "The Charioteer" was created to inaugurate the first color broadcast of the Chicago PBS television station. Resident choreographer and principal dancer with the Illinois Ballet Company for nine years, Mr. Orejudos also earned critical acclaim choreographing ballets for almost twenty different ballet companies around the nation, including San Francisco, Washington, Sacramento, New York, Milwaukee, Omaha, Dallas, Atlanta, Denver and the Delta Festival Ballet in New Orleans. He was a judge for the Southeastern Division of the American Ballet Association. Mr. Orejudos' stage credits also include dance roles in the touring companies of West Side Story, The King and I, and Song of Norway.
For much of the gay community, and the leather community in particular, Dom will be remembered for his erotica. His exaggerated muscular imagery was easily recognizable and has been featured in dozens of publications, club logos and print advertising over a thirty year period. Dom's murals covered the walls of Chicago's Gold Coast Leather Bar, which earned an international reputation by distributing his work throughout the world's leather community in poster form.
Dom's long association with leather dates to the early 1960's when he and partner, Chuck Renslow, established Kris Studios, one of the early "physique style" photographic studios. Publishers of Mars, Triumph and Rawhide Magazines, Mr. Orejudos began his career in erotic art on those pages. Together with Renslow, Mr. Orejudos established a leather night at the Hi Ho Club in Chicago, and used it as a springboard to the establishment of the Gold Coast, one of the first and longest lasting leather bars in the nation. They subsequently went on to establish a string of bars in Chicago, including Man's Country Baths, Zolar, Pyramid and Center Stage, as well as clubs in other cities such as Club Baths Kansas City and Club Baths Phoenix. One of the founding members of the "Renslow Family", Dom inaugurated Chicago's "August White Party", now in its eighteenth year.
A world traveler, Mr. Orejudos was stricken with pneumonia while traveling in a 1987 delegation to China and Tibet.
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ETIENNE
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