Statement
Born in McMinnville, Oregon, of Umqua and German
heritage, I grew up near the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde, and
became a member of that confederation. Wilderness was all around me and I
began to paint at an early age. Nature signifies immortality and acts as a
haven for human inspiration. Early influences include Native American and
biomorphic art, telluric themes of earth and germination, growth and
metamorphosis.
Landscapes in oil gradually changed to made-up, fantasy
mindscapes. The landscapes are still there, hidden in subjective
interpretations of the surrounding world. I started experimenting with
abstracts, which led to low relief collages and eventually incorporated
construction materials and found objects. The shapes I create are forms
that I have discovered in nature’s rhythms. Even now the art works have
the rough primal look of handmade objects.
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The content is a dynamic network of paint and materials, and an interplay
that speaks to the tragic-comedy absurdities of life. I attribute some of
my artistic philosophy to Marcel Duchamp, who said, “The creative act is
not by the artist alone, the spectator brings the work in contact with the
external world by deciphering and interpreting its inner qualifications,
and thus adds his contribution to the creative act.”
I work in acrylic, epoxy, canvas, ropes, wire, twigs
and found objects. The art insists on an interdisciplinary approach,
combining painting with sculpture. The most mundane things and the most
exotic things can be inspirations; a harmony of color, a maze of line… it
is the artist’s right to devote his or her attention to the common and
banal. The very essence of the web of life is in the details. Patterns,
reflections, kinetic light events in foliage, transformed into art forms
can delight the senses and even instruct us in graceful living. Perhaps
dance began with our ancestor’s imitations of their swaying, windblown
motion. Wood is the most universal of all mediums, it is an essential
substance that provides shelter and warmth, and the basic tools for living
and dying.
Art-making embodies our private struggles with the
meaning of life, the relationship between humanity and nature. In a time
when our ability to comprehend reality is becoming more and more blurred
by our inability to abstract meaning, the visionary abstractionist of
natural phenomenon represents a way of making art that is inherent and
primordial.
Heedless depletion of the world’s resources and animal
life have been of particular importance in my work. Making art with found
objects serves to symbolize a culture of waste and destruction, despoiling
rather than enhancing the biosphere. Struggles are depicted in tensions
inherent in the work. Utilizing cast-off flora from nature, then giving
back into the world, is a compelling idea. I like art that gets lost in
the surroundings, ordered chaos that is whimsical but with an edgy
statement. Through use of organic shapes and a chaotic vocabulary, it is
possible to awaken the viewer’s own private demons. The world is full of
small miracles that are accessible to all of us, we have only to keep our
eyes open.
Frank Kowing Silver Spring. Maryland, 2008
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