Article by Rayna Bailey
Local Artist – February 2005 – Colorado Central Magazine
WILDLIFE, deer, elk, rabbits, bobcats, eagles, hawks, and the landscape, forests, mountains, meadows, wildflowers, make the Wet Mountain Valley a desirable place for artists. And regardless of their preferred medium, most artists working in and around Westcliffe look out of their windows and paint or draw what they see, beautiful landscapes, wild animals, and occasionally, buffalo or cattle.
When rural Westcliffe artist Priscilla Fowler looks out of her windows she sees the same things other artists do, but her interpretations of those views are an unexpected breath of fresh air blowing through an artistic valley filled with almost photographic interpretations of the natural world.
“I get indirect inspiration from the landscape here,” Fowler said recently, looking out of the large window in her home studio. “The organic shapes, the curve of the dirt roads, trees, clouds in the sky, the colors of nature.”
Fowler’s inspiration is transformed into paintings she described as contemporary or abstract, which are created in series of multiple paintings with titles such as “Exooberate,” “Winds of Time,” “Deep Blue,” and “Diving.” She explained, “I work in series because I am exploring an idea, particular colors and shapes. I’m exploring a theoretical idea, and when I’m finished and step back I can see an emotion people will recognize and that’s where the names for the series come from.”
Along with the inspiration she finds in nature, Fowler’s preferred media — ink washes and acrylics used like watercolors – play a major role in her work. “Acrylics can be thinned with water like watercolors. My work is affected by how the water media works with the paper. The different shapes come from how the water works on the paper. I can’t tighten up. I play with the water media and let it do its own thing. I can’t control it.”
While Fowler doesn’t try to control the water media and the abstract shapes that often evolve, she does have power over her artwork’s varied spectrum of colors and she uses that to advantage. “I love color. I don’t care what color. And I don’t like colors straight out of the tube. I like blending colors,” she said, adding that acrylics are “plastics and when they dry they are like a thin layer of plastic. The colors can be layered and stay separate and not blend.”
The end results are works of art rich with vibrant colors and unique shapes that are fresh, energetic, and inspire the imagination. The ambiguity of her work is by design and is a means of drawing the viewer into each painting, she said. “I don’t consider my work done until the viewer interacts with it. It’s ambiguous so people have to make up stories about what they see.”
Besides creating stories about what they see, viewers of Fowler’s art may want to consider and draw their own conclusions to questions Fowler asks herself each time she begins a project: “Can I address formal concerns of color and composition without losing freshness? Does an organic approach preclude skill and technique? Is the end result honest or forced?”
Fowler responded to those questions, stating that the way she works with shapes and colors “limits over-planning, and preserves my artist’s hand, my joy in the act of making. Best of all,” she concluded, “it respects the viewer’s intelligence and imagination.”
Although Fowler’s interest in art blossomed in junior high school, her career followed a different path. “I was out of art,” she said, noting that she was a software developer and was in management for technology transfer at the Software Engineering Institute at Carnegie Mellon. “I learned a lot during that time that influences my art now.”
When Fowler decided to return to her first love, painting and art, she studied at the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts and the Cleveland Institute of Art. In 2001 she graduated summa cum laude from Indiana University of Pennsylvania with a bachelor’s of fine arts degree.
Since earning her degree, Fowler has put her days as a software designer behind her and works as an artist full time. “I’m the first artist in my family for many generations. My focus now is building a body of work, building my resume, getting in galleries, and getting in good shows.”
Among the shows last year in which Fowler’s art was exhibited are the Rocky Mountain Biennial at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Fort Collins; the 21st Annual All Colorado Exhibition at the Curtis Arts and Humanities Center in Greenwood Village, Colorado; the Englewood National Arts Exhibition in Englewood, Colorado.
Galleries that have shown Fowler’s art include the Emmanuel Gallery in Denver during its Colorado Society of Layerists in Multi-Media and, closer to home, Cañon Framing and Décor in Cañon City hosted Fowler as its Featured Artist of the Month in October 2004.
In 2005, Fowler will be the featured artist in a Solo Exhibition at the South Gallery, Koelbel Main Library in Centennial, Colorado, and her art will be shown at the Four-Artist Exhibition at the Durango Arts Center in Durango.
For more information, Fowler can be reached at 719-783-9392. For a sneak-peak of her art, visit her Web site: www.priscillafowlerfineart.com.
Rayna Bailey freelances from the Wet Mountain Valley.
