Synkroniciti is excited to welcome visual artist Keith Douglas Warren of Massachusetts with two vibrant drawings in colored pencil and ink on Bristol paper. Intersections renders a group of circles within a large rectangle. These circles don’t react to one another in the way we would expect, creating colors in unexpected places where some of them overlap. I am put in mind of the unexpected ways that human beings interact–there is no predicting what traits we will bring out in one another. Keith’s vivid use of colored pencil is awe-inspiring–his favorites are the Prismacolor Verithin line for their shading and blending capabilities–and his incorporation of asemic writing creates the illusion of motion throughout the work. Asemic writing looks like words, but is nonfunctional in terms of communicating specific meaning because there is no underlying language.
In the second work, Vision, Keith presents us with concentric rings, beautifully shaded, so much so that they seem to come off the paper, soft, colorful forms that make us want to hold them, despite being two dimensional. The asemic writing here is outside of the colored circles and seems to be pressing in on them. The three largest of the colored rings have an interlocking pattern laid over them, while the three smallest rings have their own interlocking pattern, this one not as visible because the colors are darker. The center point is colorless and open. Circles are often used to symbolize the Self, and this multi-ring group hints at the layers of the Self and Consciousness. Keith’s work is contemplative and playful, connecting with the viewer at visceral and intellectual levels.
View Intersections and Vision in Synkroniciti’s “Identity” issue, available here: https://synkroniciti.com/the-magazine/purchase-individual-issues/.
Keith Douglas Warren is a lifetime artist and retired Pediatric emergency Nurse. He has lived and worked, making art, most of his life in Massachusetts, USA. Keith uses many different media depending on where the muse takes him. He has been working over the past three years with Asemic Writing, incorporating it into all of his work.
Keith has shown his work in numerous galleries in and around Boston, Massachusetts, USA as well as in Provincetown, Massachusetts. He is currently published in several online and print magazines. Keith works out of his home, which also reflects his love of color. Thanks!