To create is an act of externalizing the internal, taking the deeply buried rhythm of a heartbeat and using it as a device of catharsis, healing and hope. This is what guides my experience in pursuing a career in the arts, specifically through acting and storytelling. In my opinion, art is by design a breeding ground for understanding, connection and empathy, and that is something I find deeply emotionally fulfilling about the process of creating. As I occupy this creative field, a goal of mine is to bring light to narratives that are important to me as a queer individual. Art and life have coexisted for an eternity, each subsequently informing the other; this is a tradition I wish to carry on, my personal identity and experiences being the catalyst for the kinds of works I hope to create. 

 

Influences on my art include such queer artists that came before me, such as Tennessee Williams, Tony Kushner, Larry Kramer and Mart Crowley. All of whom used their experiences as queer men to guide the stories they told. Creating aching and truthful portraits of how they saw the world.

 

As an introspective person myself, such introspection has always felt like a transcendent experience to me. Any person who knows me knows that the act of feeling is something that I deeply resonate with, and in turn a career in the arts has always been something I chased because art is inherently emotional. It is through storytelling that I have been able to best allow my capacity for feeling to guide my choices in a way that many other professions do not allow, and there’s something empowering about that as a human being, as an actor and as an artist.

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- Ian Wehrenberg