"Periphery Series"
Isadora Stowe grew up in the Southwest border region, influenced by the interrelationships between borders and divisions, real or imagined. She is inspired by how this affects the development of self and the constructions of the concept of home or place. She creates a visual universe within an artwork or art installation that can be explored and interpreted anew upon each viewing.
The paintings begin with layered Baltic birchwood panels, hand built by sculptor Adam Labe. The use of circular forms enhances the awareness of the cyclical nature of life. Specifically, how our inner library of iconography and memories allow us to travel backwards and forwards within ourselves through our own consciousness. These visions allow us to re-see, reconfigure and reexamine who we are today.
The triangular shapes symbolize an “eye of providence” or the all- seeing eye, this iconography dates back to antiquity, symbolizing the significance of how we reference ourselves internally and externally. To create the articulation of the layers of the human experience she uses a visual vocabulary or “narrative syntax” of hundreds of everyday objects transformed, connected, and repeated through different media; screen-printing, watercolor, spray paint, stencils, gouache, acrylic, ink and light-sensitive paint. The narrative starts on the exposed panels, taking form as coded, ethereal landscapes through the paint wash layers. Then proceeds to create layers of the narrative syntax, through individual screen-prints such as a flower growing out of a house, or an airplane dragging an attached ribbon, achieving different meanings through different juxtapositions. These symbolic images are repeated along with the painted layers in various scale, forms and media.
She creates Baltic birchwood silhouette cutouts of the screen-print drawings that float outside of the circle or triangles, denoting the extension of psychological space. The combinations provide symbolic vocabulary in a variety of interpretations, inviting the viewer to assign their own associative meanings.
As the work exists in its home or installation, the viewer experiences new connections over time with the narratives just as they do within their own lives. The Artist hopes to ignite the power of visual awareness with this work. Awareness and reflection allow us to reinterpret and re-remember something that has been known to us, but seen in a new translation. What
we see is transformed, and what is seen transforms the viewer.