Breathing Room

See Christopher Owen Nelson’s work in WTP Vol. V #3

carved and painted
cast acrylic
32″ x 48″

Nelson thrives in the vast arid landscape of the American West. As a Colorado native, he studied Fine Arts at Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design, where he learned classical methods in drawing and painting. While developing a deep appreciation for composition and form, Nelson focused on employing alternative materials; sculpting with used carpet, found objects, and painting on glass. He continued on to pursue a career in construction, whereby gaining valuable knowledge in concrete, steel, and woodworking that would eventually lay substructure for a new and innovative artistic approach. Electric power tools became primary instruments, with paints and textiles applied at later stages in conceptual evolution.

In my recent work I have focused primarily on the incorporation of the human element into landscapes to draw a deeper association between people and their place of being, where they come from, and how they contribute to it.

Casting torn-up love letters, print, papers and fabrics, into relief-carved resin, serves as a vehicle for the viewer to develop a fundamental connection with the work, then to move towards establishing a relationship with the space created by the associative elements.” —Christopher Owen Nelson