Interview
Sterling Bowen
Sterling is an American born artist. He studied art at UNCC as an undergrad and was also a graduate fellow in painting at the University of Houston.
After a 15 year hiatus, he returned to painting in 2018 and maintains a blog about his practice and other artists he finds interesting. You can see his blog here.
During the day, Sterling works in clean energy, and hopes one day to be a full-time practicing artist. He is also a father of two, living in Raleigh with his spouse, his favorite travel companion, and when not working, making art or traveling, spends his time playing basketball, watching science fiction or working in his community.
What is your background and how did you start your journey in the art world?
“I grew up drawing, and was encouraged to do so, like many people who end up becoming creatives. I first fell in love with abstraction in high school, before I really even knew anything about it. I made my first painting in my parent’s attic with old house paint on a bed sheet and I was mesmerized, just hooked really, on the challenge of making paintings which didn’t rely on naturalism, and the spontaneity of the whole endeavor. After high school I went to college to study architecture but found out I wasn’t wired to be an architect. So, since I was still trying to make abstract paintings, I thought why not switch to fine arts and the rest is history as they say.”
What inspires you most?
“In terms of making me want to paint, it’s seeing good art. Which makes sense - my work falls into the tradition of painting/art that refers to the act of contemplating the visual. There’s other cool things besides painting that happen in the art world, and I feel grateful that my love of painting has uncovered this ecosystem that was previously unknown to me.”
What themes do you pursue? Is there an underlying message in your work?
“I don’t intend for there to be an idea - what I’d call a subject other than the physical object - that threads through my work as a theme. What I’m pursuing now that’s recognizable to viewers as a concept is using isometric cubes to create these unrealistic or at least not-natural things or places. I use this drawing strategy as a system to contain my practice, which in fairness is sort of a theme.
There isn’t an intent on my part to have the forms and systems in the paintings refer to something other than the work itself or to formalism more generally. The desire to have an idea that’s this cute synopsis that begins with “the subject of my work…” doesn’t motivate me. I also prefer to talk about “my practice” which I see as the content of what I’m doing and the recognition of my identity and how they shape each other.”
How would you describe your work?
“My process is that of a formalist non-objective painter, whether I’m making actual paintings or intuitively assembling site specific constructions out of other materials.”
Which artists influence you most?
“I can’t believe I have to narrow it down, I’ve blogged about over 900 artists in the last 2+ years… There are some amazing abstractionists living right now- Mark Bradford and Julie Mehretu obviously come to mind, on the painting front. Leonardo Drew is probably our best living sculptor. I’ve been digging Tomory Dodge’s new work lately as well as Katie Trick, and Meg Lipke blows my mind, too.
As far as artists whose practice to me seems similar and knowable, I’d say- and hope I’m right- James Sienna, Stanley Whitney (I hear you about following the painting out the window), and Clare Grill, who I got to hear speak recently and found incredibly lucid about being in the work zone. BTW, how did none of us know Betty Parsons was such a good painter? I’m really inspired by her paintings on chunks of wood as well, which isn’t a surprise to anyone who’s seen my cube assemblies.”
What is your creative process like?
“Pretty conventional, sort of like what I imagined it would be like in art school (studies lead to work that you make in “bodies” and then those forms mutate or shift). I work full time so the day-to-day is never the same. I’m not a regimen person in general. I go to be studio when the energy is right to make work - I took over a decade off of this, so, nothing feels urgent, and I don’t beat myself up for missing a few nights in the studio (it helps that I fill the “rest” of my life with interesting, valuable things to do).”
What is an artist’s role in society and how do you see that evolving?
“Art is dead, which is great. I say let’s all just leave the weight of worrying about whether what we’re making is Art behind and make work for our moment, since none of us get to live in the future anyway. With time, people down the road will decide what happened today that contributed enough to their story to pass it forward (history). Does that mean nothing from the past is worth studying, or even carrying forward- absolutely not. Why else make another abstract painting ever? The point isn’t to be a good and loyal descendent, it’s to be a cool ancestor.”
Have you had any noteworthy exhibitions you'd like to share?
“I had the craziest experience last Fall. I submitted a proposal to an open call from Golden Belt Arts in Durham, NC. They had a last minute cancellation and I ended up putting together a show of paintings, painted assemblages and wooden cube constructions in about a week’s time. I really hope any creative reading this gets this kind of happy emergency some day if they haven’t already. I called the show Dimensions, mostly because (the passage of) time and (literal, optical and psychological) space are the closest things to a subject for my work. It was so great to see all 3 bodies of work I’ve been exploring up on the wall together. The show was also a great point for me - an inflection really - as I got to process how each body of work is, and should be different, which has motivated me to move in some new directions since.”
Website: sterling-bowen.com
Instagram: @sterlingbowen
