Nell Warren

Following her well-received first exhibition at PDX, Nell Warren's second PDX exhibition, "Storied" continues the same thread of images and concerns. Her work falls unconsciously into a Northwest tradition of Graves and Tobey; nature-centric, meditative markings of personal iconography. The paintings are abstracted compositions of the swirl of fish, the migrations of birds, and other dramatic events of nature. Paintings on canvas and tiny collages of paint chips will be on exhibition.

Warren is a fifth generation Oregonian who has spent time in Asia and Italy. One can see the influence of those cultures in her work. She received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2000.

"I love how the shape of events becomes more clear in flashes of fleeting wonder to be remembered again at some new intersection of experience and realization. How these moments of truth, great and small, work on us and in turn shape how we move through the world. My world is populated with magical places. Singular in their aspects, romantically beautiful, sublimely vast and moving, all ruled by their relationship with the flow of water aroud them. Growing up these haunts we swam like fish, climbed like squirrels, built forts like beavers, and explored the islands of my life as pirates, cataways, and explorers. The creatures that inhabit them possess totemic majesty and impressed on me a great love of animals as well as a curiosity for the mysteries of the world. It is no great wonder then that I am a hopeless romantic, an idealist, and a storyphile, believing and breathing fantasy in every waking moment. Every stone and outcrop is the remnant of vast time so far beyond comprehension that it defines the parameters of logic and can only be grasped through the spelling of tales and the painting of pictures."

-Nell Warren