Graceann Warn

SOURCE: askart.com

I paint and I construct. 
Both my paintings and assemblages use the metaphor of excavation. 
My formal education in landscape architecture and classical archaeology provides structure to artistic flights of fancy that always seem to revolve around some form of revelation:

    The attempt to unearth an object or solve a mystery.
          Uncovering/Covering.
           Leaving a Trace,
               a Vestige,
             a Palimpsest.  

                                --Graceann Warn

Graceann Warn, American, was born and raised in New Jersey. She graduated from Michigan State University with a degree in landscape architecture. Although Graceann’s academic background is in urban design and classical archeology, she eventually became known for her assemblages.

She later pursued her Master's in Landscape Architecture at the University of Michigan, but changed her mind, taking a leap of faith and she began working as full time studio artist in 1985 with work exhibited and collected nationally and internationally.  

In the last ten years she has returned to painting using oils and encaustic.  The present work reflects the structural logic of her architectural beginnings as well as her abiding interest in archeology.  The paintings are comprised of multiple layers of encaustic and paper creating a sense of depth.  Surfaces are distressed, drawn upon  and marked not unlike the ancient walls that inspire her. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally and is in the collections of Yale University, US Embassies in Nairobi and Sarajevo, Pew Charitable Trusts and many others. 

Graceann lives in in Ann Arbor, Michigan with her husband Geoff.