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This image, Black Madonna, honors the grandmother of a dear friend from Columbia, South America. Watermark
is not part of the actual artwork.
Rowena Bowman is originally from New Orleans. She spent 1991-2001 in Washington
D.C. working with a variety of media including fiber art and computer graphics. While there, she was granted studio
space at Glen Echo Park. She also had the priviledge of being one of the Chalk Festival artists. These artists took
part in special events at the Kennedy Center, the Children's Museum, and the Women's Museum where original works of art were
created in chalk, taking shape as the public watched. Glen Echo was also a place where the public could watch as artists
worked. While in Washington D.C., Rowena developed a personal style through mixed
media and digital graphics. Each composition is produced in several stages with a variety of traditional and modern
studio techniques.
The examples on this site all have watermarks which are not part of the actual artwork.
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Rowena returned to the South in 2001. She continued to use computer generated images, re-working
them with mixed media, until Hurricane Katrina claimed her computer equipment and much of her artwork. The trama of the hurricane and the long aftermath became the subject matter for her art. She switched
to textured paper collages which reflect the devastation of the storm on the communities of the Gulf Coast. In
the long months of the rebuilting process, Rowena's art became a celebration of the die-hard spirit of the locals,
people who were living in rubble night and day. The two works here are collages of textured paper. The
one above is titled Storm Surge and represents the destruction of the tidal wave that swept inland 12 miles.
The one below is titled Lost Pal, it honors the many pets that were left behind after their owners evacuated. In September 2006, Rowena was selected as the only visual artist among many performing artists from
Louisiana and Mississippi, who were honored at the Kennedy Center's Open House as Survivors of Katrina. For her
it was an opportunity to move on.
She now lives and works in Fresno. From the fields to the foothills, this new
environment offers fresh inspiration. You'll see the artwork that springs from the Central Valley climate in future Art Hop
venues.
Previews of these showings will be found on this website. Thank you for your interest. Please make return
visits often. The work and the website is continously evolving.
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