ARTIST'S STATEMENT

THIS PRESENT PATH ~ ARTIST’S STATEMENT

My journey in art began as a preschooler in the early 1950s when my Aunt Ruth, a music professor, gave me an I.Q. and aptitude test that revealed I could do well in the arts. This delighted my parents since that seemed to be the bent on both sides of the family. My mother was a recognized artist in the Dallas area winning many shows and consistently selling as well as teaching art from her home studio for decades. A strong memory I have of my mother is one of her sitting at a large easel, her back to the door, painting. After school I’d plop down on the couch and have a snack, while she asked about my day without ever missing a brushstroke. Absorbed in her work she’d often lose track of time and have to scurry to have dinner ready when Dad came home. My mother, Barbara (Casey) Barlow Carpenter, was the artist who taught me to see the world with an artist’s eye. My journey can’t be complete without giving her honor due.

The next part of my journey was sporadic, artistically speaking, with art classes through high school and college and an occasional painting or collage. Distracted by other things the production of art was little or none. However, I loved writing and began producing articles for local newspapers and magazines, again, an aptitude for the arts. Using my degree in education I taught elementary school for ten years and child-level art projects were the extent of my dabbling. After my children were grown I moved to East Texas and volunteered at the Michelson Museum of Art where I began to meet area artists and art enthusiasts. Through a series of fortuitous events that can only be described as kismet I began taking a pottery class, started teaching 5/6 grade art, renewed my interest in photography and also took up painting again. That brings me to this present path.

Some would say viewers of art should stand back taking in the whole picture, the broad view. However, much of my art is intended to draw you close. I produce art on a variety of levels; stand back and take it in, come up close and search, and it is all to find meaning, whether as I intended or “whatever you perceive it to be”. Art should be personal. I bring my life experience, opinion, attitude, and vision to the table and when you look, you should add your own.  Together we create an artistic experience…we share.

Creatively speaking I have bared much of my soul, but not all. It is not easy to expose the rawest version of oneself. I’m still shaking off the shackles of societal restraint when creating. At some point I always ask myself, “Should this be art?” and of course, the answer is YES. Art is expression and if a seed is planted and generates creatively then it becomes art. Life and art are often one and the same. I agree that it is not always pretty or decorative…thank goodness! Sometimes life is dirty, ugly, and unpleasant…even controversial. However, we don’t have to love everything we see. We should, though, love the fact that an artist was willing to put it all on the line in order to create because when fear keeps creativity at bay art will suffer.

My life began with one artist sharing art with me. From the masters to folk artists to the local hobbyist, they have given and I have received something in the form of what we simply call “art”. I pray my journey will continue for many years and that how I live is a spiritual and visual expression of a life artfully lived.

Claudia Lowery

November 2011