Dean Shinner
A Wanderer’s Book of Refuges, 2021
watercolor, pastel, watercolor pencil, pencil on Dura-Lar and paper
11 x 11 x 1 (book), installation varies
About "A Wanderers Book of Refuge"
With A Wanderer’s Book of Refuges, I abstract from different novels and poems, mixing quotes with paintings to expose how stories create emotional landscapes, evoking both our senses of wonder and respite. In weaving disparate stories together, I guide the reader through a series of the spaces that books create, advocating and inviting the reader into their loving. As books have been a refuge for me in the last year, I show that they create very real feelings of love, friendship, sacrifice, and life – especially when life can be so distant, and refuges so few and far between.
What better love letter to books, and the magic that is inside them, than a book?
About Dean
Dean Shinner is an artist, erstwhile writer, and avid book-wanderer living and working in the Pacific Northwest, graduating from Ithaca College this spring with a B.F.A. in Art. When he is not bent over his drafting table or poring over paintbrushes, he enjoys curling up with far too many books, and storytelling of all kinds with those he loves.