I.C. Works On Paper

While I’m cutting, gluing, folding and otherwise shifting numerous stacks of paper, how about a brief tour of the studio mayhem? Some folks might like this kind of diversion☕️

Thank you to the Ohio Arts Council for supporting this journey into a Forest of Words and Wonder, coming later this summer 2026

A few nights and days on Lake Ruby

Ian Cross’ upcoming exhibition, “A Forest of Words and Wonder” is made possible in part by an investment of public funds from the Ohio Arts Council (OAC). The OAC is state agency that funds and supports quality arts experiences to strengthen Ohio communities culturally, educationally, and economically.

A Forest of Words and Wonder will be exhibited in 2026, and presented to the local community in Columbus, Ohio.

Thank you to the Ohio Arts Council for awarding me the Individual Artist Opportunity Grant for 2025 and 2026. This generous financial contribution from OAC will support my efforts to plan and exhibit A Forest of Words and Wonder in 2026

Ian Cross’ upcoming exhibition, “A Forest of Words and Wonder” is made possible in part by an investment of public funds from the Ohio Arts Council (OAC). The OAC is a state agency that funds and supports quality arts experiences to strengthen Ohio communities culturally, educationally, and economically.

A Forest of Words and Wonder will be exhibited in 2026, and presented to the local community in Columbus, Ohio.



Thank you to the Ohio Arts Council for awarding me the Individual Artist Opportunity Grant for 2025 and 2026. This generous financial contribution from OAC will support my efforts to plan and exhibit A Forest of Words and Wonder in 2026

Detours and Notes
drawing with paper
progress pic 2025

I’m wandering over and under the compositional surface. Not sure of what it’s supposed to be, I habitually inspect the folds, shapes, patterns, and colors attempting to trace out what’s familiar, but still not quite legible. If I study the topography of my paper drawing long enough, all the disparate pieces form a strange prism made of shards and debris. Suddenly I notice a brief glimmer of figuration. It only lasts for a moment before it floats away and dissolves back into the laminated layers of abstracted shapes
☕️☕️☕️

“If a result confirms the hypothesis, then you’ve made a measurement. If the result is contrary to the hypothesis, then you’ve made a discovery.”

~Enrico Fermi

Detours and Notes
selected papers, blue pencil,graphite and ink
drawing in progress 2025

Working Title: Detours and Notes
selected papers, blue pencil, graphite, ink
2025

I’m telling a story in a different way. Perhaps, it’s an un-story; like a thing that can only be seen more clearly by breaking it.

Be Unpronounceable
selected papers,blue pencil,graphite, ink
2025

I’m slowly cutting, bending,folding, and continuing to weave the paper into unusual shapes. Some of the hybrid letter forms are hinged like eccentric book pages. Other letter shapes are woven and laminated together to accentuate the various paper fabrics.
☕️
The work is always intricate and incredibly slow. I keep reimagining an interactive analog book as the main creative theme, while intuitively mapping my way through this making process until nothing more can be subtracted or added.

“Where I create, there I am true.”
~Rumi

Unpronounceable
selected papers,blue pencil,ink
wip 2025

More drawing excursions and paper folding☕️

“ When language-games change, there is a change in concepts, and with the concepts the meaning of words change.”

~Ludwig Wittgenstein
On Certainly

Collage Sketches ☕️
Concepts for Pronouncing Shapes -Alternative Literacies

Whenever I’m writing letter forms, I’m instantly aware that I’m engaged in a structured drawing process. There’s something fundamental to drawing letters that holds and guides my attention. It’s more than just the meditative tracing of templated characters.Each small architectural element of my alphabet becomes a subtle instrument, modulating how I read and speak before and after I take each breath.

Strange Pronunciations and Daffodil
selected papers, plastic and paper straws, ink, paint, graphite
2025
☕️🌞☕️🌞☕️🌞

These are the four new vessels I’ve been working on. They’re beautifully experimental, as each one represents a new shape, color, pattern, texture and repurposed material 🧵🪡✂️🧶🖇️✂️

The theme for this series is alternative literacies and estranged narratives ☕️