"I always thought it would look cool to color in the lines of a map, so that's what I did."įollowing that first experiment, Warren dove headlong into the world of art. Warren says he started creating about ten years back while attending college at CU Boulder when a friend informed him that a library on campus was distributing expired USGS maps for free. The sculptures are most often recreations and reimaginings of topographic maps, the data for which is pulled straight from the archives of the United States Geological Survey (USGS). "If you like puzzles, you would like this work," Warren commented, "because it's finding weird shapes in a big array of weird shapes saying, I need this weird shape and it goes here and I need this weird shape and it goes there but yeah, it's fun meditative work."
So now he explores the world by translating topographical maps and their design elements into art.Įach sculpture is comprised of hundreds of laser-cut or CNC machined shapes (cut from wood or matboard) which are then layered on top of each other in order to achieve three dimensions. "it is a constant exploration of, 'let's see where we can take this, let's see what this can turn into,' and I can easily see that from my life growing up in the mountains and the desert," said Warren. LITTLETON - Drawing on experience from a life spent among scenic vistas and landforms of immense scale, one Colorado artist is transforming topography into breathtaking sculptures.Ĭhristopher Warren, operator, and artist for Beatnik Prints, has been creating sculptures based on the design and layout of topographic maps for nearly a decade.īorn and raised in Durango, Colorado, Warren explains that growing up in the shadow of the San Juan Mountains paired with the great deal of time he spent exploring the desert of Southern Utah had an impact on how he views and approaches his art.
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