Marianne Rowe, Artist's Statement                                                  

My paintings draw on the way all aspects of nature, including our species, form a fascinating whole.   Frequently, I focus on the more “mundane” elements of nature that we tend to overlook in our search for the spectacular:  marshes and wild grasses, wildflowers, bare branches.   I am fascinated by the structure and rhythms in nature-- from the branching of trees to the branching of our arteries, from the structure of our cells to the formation of galaxies-- and try to capture some of their mysteries on canvas. As such, each of my paintings represents a microcosm that evolves from the interplay of content, energy, color, composition and medium.  Mostly, I prefer to work in a hyper-realistic style that invites viewers to engage in a dialogue with the paintings and, in the process, discover something new and unexpected.    I have found a particular freedom of expression in collage, and frequently incorporate rice-paper studies to obtain a particular type of luminosity.  The German neo-expressionist, Anselm Kiefer, the 20^th Century surrealist, Max Ernst and the art of Chinese brush painting serve as my primary influences.

About the Artist

Education:

Marianne Rowe received a Ph.D. from Rice University in Germanic Literature and Linguistics, a course of study which greatly informs the narrative content of her work. She has been on the faculty at Bentley College.   Her art education constitutes a lifetime pursuit with classes taken at The Museum School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, Texas; The Radcliffe Institute in Cambridge, Ma.; The Massachusetts College of Arts in Boston, Ma;  the School of the DeCordova Museum in Lincoln, Ma,  and at the Lexington Arts and Crafts Society.

Exhibits:

Ms. Rowe has had solo shows at Bentley College in Waltham, Ma. and at First Parish Unitarian Universalist Church in Arlington Ma.  She has participated in small group shows at the Cambridge Art Association in Cambridge, Ma.;  Agora Gallery in New York City;  and at the Lexington Arts and Crafts Society in Lexington, Ma.  Her work was accepted for display in juried shows at the DeCordova Museum School, the Cambridge Art Association, Arlington Center for the Arts, Landau Gallery at Belmont Hill School in Belmont, Ma. and at the Concord Art Association in Concord, Ma.  Her paintings are also part of private collections in Houston, Texas, Washington, D.C., the Boston metropolitan area and in the Bentley College Library collection.

Review of Work:

“Marianne Rowe’s watercolors writhe with natural energy.  While their imagery depicts landscape elements,...the overall thrust of Rowe’s compositions is abstract.  What emerges in her pictures is a strong sense of the rhythms and patterns of nature akin to that in the work of Charles Burchfield, yet with an even deeper spiritual component that makes Rowe’s work special.”    Claude LeSeur,  ARTspeak, New York, October, 1992.

Contact: Marianne Rowe at  mrowe@bentley.edu     or   telephone   781-648-5748