Life & Work with Gentry Warren

Today we’d like to introduce you to Gentry Warren.

Hi Gentry, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
After graduating from pastry school, I moved to the San Francisco area for my first job. I quickly became affected by severe insomnia. It wasn’t until I was inspired by a newly acquired painting that I picked up a paintbrush and started to paint, that I slept for a complete 8 hours for the first time in months. I started posting what I was painting on my personal Instagram, and people were offering to purchase them. Soon after, I made an art-based account and started posting my paintings and creations regularly. As a pastry chef and manager, I traveled around the country working for different establishments but always painted during the time I wasn’t in the bakery or restaurant. Before my most recent move, I had sold over 100 original paintings from my social media and Etsy accounts to collectors around the world.

I moved to Pittsburg just over a year ago to finish a bachelor’s degree at Pittsburg State University. During my first week on campus, I attended a Community Fair and met Darcie Shultz, the owner of a local bookstore, Books & Burrow. Shortly after I brought some of my paintings for her and her husband to see in person. It went over really well and we quickly started a relationship where my original works hang throughout their store. Having an opportunity for my work to be visible in person, was a game changer. Through different events and connections, many through the bookstore, I have since had 2 solo shows, and over the last several months have hung in 3 different businesses in our town.

The focus on community relationships and networking in Pittsburg is incredible, and the support from people all over the area has been astounding.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
My artistic journey has been fairly smooth. I come from a lineage of painters on both sides of my family and was always encouraged to express myself creatively.

I don’t paint with the intent of sales or a certain end result in mind, but rather from my emotion and personal experiences. Making art in this way has allowed me to be my own boss in terms of what’s acceptable or not. As a mostly self-trained painter, not knowing the rules often plays in my favor.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
For all my creative outlets, storytelling lies at the core. I generally tell people I paint abstracts and animals with attitude. My current abstract painting style embraces geometric shapes, often squares or rectangles, amongst abstract backgrounds. The square style came from my love of quilts and quilting, which at its foundation was a way to tell stories and capture history.

Abstracts for me are a way of putting emotion and thoughts in color and motion. As creatures bound for connection, our thoughts and emotions often display themselves in the stories we tell and pass on. When creating animals I also create short personality stories to accompany them. I’ve been told on several occasions that the stories I create with my animal portraits have sold the piece before the actual visual art did. My work is most often recognized for the geometric presence and vivid color combinations I use. I hold a very dear belief that all colors can exist together, there are no clashing colors in my world. I love to push the boundaries of how many colors a piece can contain while still appealing to the viewer.

Having my first show is definitely something recent I’m very proud of. However, overall I’m proud every time a painting sells and it becomes part of another’s story. I do not find it accurate to call myself a storyteller and expect the story to end after I’ve created a painting. I create the painting in the expectation that its completion is only the birth of an entire story that is yet to come and be told.

We all have different ways of looking at and defining success. How do you define success?
I think success is something personal that varies from human to human. To define it seems impossible in my worldview.

For me, creative success is being able to continue creating work that resonates with others and makes them want to add it to their lives. If that means I sell 1 painting a year or 1 painting a day, the success is not in the quantity for me. Success is being able to live a life that I get to create.

Contact Info:

• Website: gwarrenart.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gwarrenart/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gwscottwoodward/

Image Credits
Baylee Claypool & Brett Dalton