About | warren-art

My Work, A Dichodemy of Contrast

Megan Warren

I am passionate about both creating, and about helping others to create meaningful art. From murals to watercolor, my own visual work is best explained as a type of dream-like portrayal of reality, as if created through a lens that blurs the boundaries between impressionism and realism. The distinguishing characteristic of this lens is the creation of images that are underscored by attention to contrast. In other words, the sense I aim to achieve with my work is one that tells a story about imposing darkness that is silenced, drowned out, and sedated by light.

With this in mind, the resulting images are centered around the dichotomy of contrast: a metaphorical ladder on which I have stood since I was first told that anything needed to be corrected in my artistic endeavors. As a young student, I was instructed to not be afraid of contrast--that it was essential that I be more bold in my approach. Somewhere, perhaps in the back of my mind at the time, the lack of balance and of equal distribution of light was starkly unsettling to me. But I was wrong. I have since found that contrast is what draws the eye. It makes art relatable to the human experience that is filled with tangible, contrasting emotions: with fleeting moments of light and darkness; neither less real or valid than the other. This reflects the human experience by blending of all these moments and feelings that creates a complete emotional spectrum, just as the blending and differentiation of light and darkness on a canvas produces a relatable image devoid of emptiness.

As a pattern in my work, I primarily facilitate the use of mediums and subject matter that first presented the most extreme challenge and initial frustration. I am convinced that if I didn’t first hate watercolors and have to overcome tendencies to feel incapable of mastering that medium, I wouldn’t love it so much now. There is something satisfying about transforming challenges into better versions of reality. This is art.

I look to art for consolation, absorbing truths by artists such as Vincent Van Gough, who said, “It is the artist’s duty to create a world that is more beautiful, simpler, and more consoling than the one we live in.”

If, through creating, I can usher in some kind of consoling beauty, I know that the ever-evolving lens through which I perceive the world has given the intended impression: an impression that freely communicates a full visual spectrum of variables, relatable to emotion and connection. This experience can be transforming when perceived through the powerful dichotomy of contrast.