Ian Shelly

Artist Statement

Perception, Transition, Permanence, & Relationships

These four themes have continually floated to the top of my thoughts and practice over the last several years. These new ideas continue to overpower those in my previous work, such as place, subject, and time.

What is real? How are these different? Where does this lead?

These are all questions I thrust upon my viewers as they explore, for themselves, using my work and its various ciphers and tokens to embark on a journey exploring the limits of perception, the boundaries of permanence, the speed and course of transition, and of course, the perceived relationships between objects and symbols.

In this work, I have taken liberties with blurring the lines between real and imagined, moving and stationary. Of course, I have also taken great pleasure in skewing the way objects relate and upset the balance between what remains and what is cursory.

-- Ian Shelly