Monday, February 1, 2016

Selected Drawings

I have an upcoming show of drawings at the Santa Barbara Architectural Foundation titled Selected Drawings. Following are the press release, examples from the show, and the artist statement.
 
 
PRESS RELEASE

 
The Architectural Foundation of Santa Barbara is proud to announce a new exhibition of pen and ink images by architect Obie G. Bowman titled Selected Drawings.  The public is invited to attend an opening reception for the artist on Friday, February 26 from 5-8 pm.  Refreshments will be served.  The show will continue through April 1.
 
The 22 drawings exhibited have been selected from three of Obie’s on-going series of work: Vernacular Architecture drawings are made from the landscape, celebrating bygone construction, and often contrasting old and new.  Biomorphic Images are based upon his inherent affinity for with the rhythms of nature and the organic forms that result. These drawings begin with at least the germ of a compositional idea and develop from there  ̶  often evolving and taking on their own growth pattern as the work proceeds.   With and Without Memory alludes to primeval DNA, thoughts of coexistence with fellow life forms, and the notion that, except for the luck of the draw, you and I could easily have been them or it.
 
Obie G. Bowman, FAIA is an acclaimed architect and talented artist.  Born in Santa Monica, he currently resides in the Dry Creek Valley near Healdsburg.  He attended USC, UC Berkeley, and Arizona State Universities and received a Bachelor of Architecture degree.  After apprenticing with Los Angeles architects from 1967 to 1971, he moved to the Mendocino Coast to start his own studio and as his practice grew he opened offices at The Sea Ranch (1973) and in the Dry Creek Valley in Sonoma County (1994).  Obie was inducted into the American Institute of Architects College of Fellows in 2008.
 
The Architectural Foundation Gallery is located in the historic Acheson House at the corner of Garden and Victoria Streets in Santa Barbara.  The gallery entrance on Garden Street is accessible by ramp.  Gallery hours are Tuesday through Friday from 9 am to 2 pm and by appointment.  Press Contact: Allison Marcillac.  Additional images are available upon request.  Please call 805-965-6307 for more information.    
 
Vernacular Architecture
 
 
Biomorphic Images




With and Without Memory

 
ARTIST’S STATEMENT
 
Drawing is one of a number of ways I express my perceived relation to the world around me.  I am intrigued by much of the man-made world, but intrigued even more by most of the natural-made  world.  Although sometimes distraught by our disrespect for one another, I am always distraught by our disrespect for the  natural world, especially in regard to the multitude  of life forms that share the planet, most of which were here first.
It seems that both my architecture and my drawing exist in a netherworld between man’s rationality and nature’s randomness.  Somewhere between order and chaos and between known and unknown lies the magic zone that eludes all but the most distinguished works.
 
I usually start work with the germ of an idea or composition and allow the drawing to evolve and (hopefully) help discover its own conclusion.  I find pen and ink (as well as brush and wash) to be suitable tools for navigating through the process in  search  of  that magic zone.

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