Through Christopher Warren’s series of edited landscapes, he explores how human history interacts with the landforms it has been imposed onto. This history includes nuclear fracking, resource extraction, and geometric land allotments. We attempt to impose Euclidean geometry onto the fractal geometry of nature; Warren’s art physically imposes these contradicting geometric languages onto each other to explore the events of Colorado’s past.

Artist Statement (pdf)
Resume (pdf)

Colorado Fourteener Collection Price List (pdf)

“The piece titled The Nipple depicts the feature called “The Nipple” in North West Colorado, with the arbitrary Euclidean shapes that land allotments, extraction leases, and property rights use in an attempt to classify the fractal geometry of nature. “

“The 14,000 foot peaks found in Colorado have significant attention paid to them, with the term “peak bagging” often applied to those who aim to summit as many mountains as they can. All of Colorado’s 14ers have been isolated by their lowest encompassing contour line, and arranged in their general orientation across the state. These mammoth geologic features have been detached from their surroundings and presented in a consumable form, all for the fact that they are taller than the arbitrary 14,000 foot mark.”

“The human history of the American west is invariably shaped by the land, and through my series of altered landscapes, I attempt to explore how human activities and concepts are imposed on the land. The piece titled Plowshare shows the topography above the Rio Blanco nuclear test site, with radiating bands of alteration centered on the epicenter of three nuclear blasts that occurred underground in Colorado on May 17th, 1973. “

“My newest works, The Emerald Series, seeks to contradict that distance by deeply experiencing the local parks of my surroundings. These are parks in which I’ve spent a tremendous amount of time, hiking, biking, kayaking, climbing, and general adventuring.”

“Landscapes affect us physically, chemically, and psychologically; they resonate with genetically encoded instincts of which we are not conscious. Most of us in the developed world have transferred direct immersion in the power of landscape into abstract environmental concerns and digital experience. We have distanced ourselves.”

“This moment of time we’re experiencing also brings our focus closer to home; it’s allowed me to examine and appreciate my immediate environment more deeply. “

Born into a family of artists, Ben Strawn grew up on conversations concerning color, line and form.  Maps, as objects in themselves, have intrinsic beauty: abstract composition of line, form, material & shape. We map in order to try and understand our place in reality – be it physical, psychological, emotional or spiritual. Drawing inspiration from the forms of the earth and the beauty of color, Strawn works with frequencies, form, color and balance to create abstract magic that expresses the essence of life itself: living.

Artist Statement (pdf)
Resume (pdf)

“In the beginning there was the dot- the 'you are here'. Then came the line- the indication of direction, distance and time. The line circled around and joined itself to become a shape, a perimeter, a within and without, an expression of ownership, self and other. identity-to identify with-definition of self.”

“We map in order to try and understand our place in 'reality' be it physical, psychological, emotional, spiritual.”

“It is interesting that in order to gain perspective we rise above and look down at our worlds; in the process we lose perspective in the renaissance sense. i.e. 'Renaissance perspective' The world flattens onto the picture plane. Shape flattens into modern art. “

Christopher Hassig’s creations are not maps of measurement and observation, but maps of imagination.  For the purposes of his most recent series, accumulated investigation into the ever-evolving ways of representing the world & our surroundings are all part of the research towards a richer imagination.  The gap between what’s visible on the page and the inferred territory is where maps catch fire in Hassig’s imagination.  Translating that vision as best he can, or better yet, giving us the tools to construct our own imagination based on the available information, is a lifetime project.

Artist Statement (pdf)
Resume (pdf)

Quorim Quorim Walking Tour

Pietro, Loosey, Govi, and Tata Walking Tour

Okepalung Walking Tour

Ellen Moershel studies the geometric properties and spatial relations of our tangible landscape.  Her goal is not to copy the profound beauty nature provides for us, but to examine how these aspects are affected by the continuous change of shape and color to create her paintings that focus on abstracted line and color formations.

Artist Statement (pdf)
Resume (pdf)

“My interest in cartographic design is not the only source of study for these pieces; I am also interested in color progression and abstract renderings of the imaginary. As an artist, this gives me the opportunity to derive imagery from the beautiful and complex visual structure of a map, obscuring the informational elements and coloring it with my own choice of shades to create a fictional macro-terrain.”

Focusing on human impact on the environment, Heather Patterson’s work is a documentation of the forever changing elements in the natural topography of our landscape.  She recreates geographic patterns & layers them to make up a new series of abstracted terrain.  This morphing of forms combines imagery such as computer generated weather systems, topographic map lines, animal migration patterns, cellular structures, networking graphs, water movement patterns, lichen on boulders, rock formations and other natural phenomena.

Artist Statement (pdf)
Resume (pdf)