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Ian Warren
ARTIST BIO
Ian D. Warren is a Colorado-based book artist. He currently resides in Washington, DC, where he is earning a MA in book arts from the Corcoran School of the Arts and Design at The George Washington University. Ian holds a BFA in sculpture from the Kansas City Art Institute, Kansas City, MO. Ian's work is currently collected by the Gelman Library at GWU and the Topeka & Shawnee County Public Library. His work, "The Ride I Never Took" and "The Grass Isn't Greener" are represented by Abecedarian Gallery in Denver, CO.
ARTIST STATEMENT
Ian D. Warren is a visual artists currently focused on book arts. His work is often a combination of visual and textual narrative, interweaving creative writing and image making. Ian is working towards making art that speaks for itself, creating moments where the viewer is lead to a conclusion through the experience. At the same time, he wants the work to be open enough to where viewers can form their own conclusions. He accomplishes this with semi-opaque short stories and poetry, allowing the reader to go back and forth without a confusion of story line.
Taking advantage of paths or focal points, he is able to invite the viewer to feel as if they are there. He also strives to use mediums and printing methods that best convey his intent. Rather than setting rules for himself, he aims to justify the material with the end. Ian enjoys working with photography because of the analogies and juxtapositions that can be created. He employs these tactics to induce metaphor through the sequence of his pages.
Warren works in the book arts medium because he feels that it is a timeless form of art. The structure of the book allows artists to create something that is limitlessly referenced. An artist’s book never goes out of date and lends itself to interaction. Anyone can open a book and explore its intent and purpose. Unlike other mediums, bookness can always be explored and pushed without losing its identity as an artists book.
Ian is heavily influenced by his environment. Growing up in the West his work often shows concern for the state of our world and contemporary climate issues. It also leads to nostalgia for the old Western lifestyle. He is also influenced by photographers such as Rebecca Norris Webb and Alex Webb as well as Tate Shaw and his work on integrating photography and digital methods into book making. Nathan Lyons’ visual poetry also comes into play when creating layouts for his work. Ian strives to fall into the ranks of artists like Lyons and Shaw, exploring what the visual can offer the general public.
Ian wants others to understand that his work is always about details and can be experienced in many different ways. Within works such as “The Ride I Never Took,” collaboration with fellow book artist Krista Sharp, he wants the viewer to feel a sense of family values and perhaps inspire them to think of ones they lost. Within “The Grass Isn’t Greener” he wants to grow an appreciation for nature through the juxtaposition of a decaying state. Though his work can be seen as political, he prefers not to speak on bi-partisan subjects. His ultimate goal is for as many people to see and appreciate the work. Ian feels that if there is a pretense of politics the works will not be able to fully speak for themselves.
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