The Compass

Issue date: 2/3/10 Section: Entertainment

Media Credit: Lauren Blais Matt Pitts and Crystal Wood viewed the exhibit before class. Here they stand before Rowlett's "KIng of the Swimming Hole." "It's funny how different people see different things in these," Wood said.

Standing before "The Clone" (left) and "Flight out of Egypt."

Pitts takes a look at "End of Summer," which features a common object in Rowlett's paintings: the red cooler.

Media Credit: Rachel Reed Terry Rowlett stands before his painting, "Flight out of Egypt."

Terry Rowlett is an artist whose pieces in the Roy C. Moore Art Gallery depict modern figures in natural settings.

His work blends familiar, current figures with historical art references, such as "Flight out of Egypt," in which a modern family bicycles past a neighborhood. Each element of the modern depiction represents a piece of ancient Egypt. The family is meant to represent a contemporary, religious version of Joseph, Mary and Jesus.

Every element of Rowlett's work is drawn from actual experience. He points around the exhibit to five of his paintings, "I literally photographed that kudzu, literally stood on a rooftop and lived in Brooklyn and looked at Manhattan everyday, walked those woods thousands of times, lived in that neighborhood, and walked that beach," Rowlett said. His images are drawn from the thousands of places he's seen and lived. 

"Everything you've ever done in your life is still with you even if you forget it and don't even remember it," said Rowlett.

He is currently represented by Jenkins Johnson Gallery in New York City and Zeitgeist Gallery in Nashville. His "Man with Ax" painting graced the cover of the spring edition of The Georgia Review, a quarterly publication of essays, short fiction, poetry, reviews and art. Several of his pieces from the Roy C Moore Art Gallery are featured on the pages of The Georgia Review focused on "Culture and the Environment."

The outdoor settings of his paintings are inspired by a longing for the world to return to its love of nature.

"We don't seem to be very much involved in nature anymore. We're all in our cubicles, we're all in our buildings, our air conditioned houses, and I just want to put us back where we used to be for so long, so I want to encourage people to get out into nature (with these paintings)" Rowlett said.

Dogs are a common element that many of Rowlett's paintings share. Though Rowlett incorporates modern possessions and familiar objects into many of his paintings, the dogs reappear and are used as a "softener of the image to bring a familiar, viable character into the the depiction without being an extra human," Rowlett said.

Rowlett's collection is an experience. It's a discovery of everyday figures placed in the outdoor world while taking on the roles of historical figures.

"I try to paint pictures that are timeless images of people living on this earth," Rowlett said.

His collection will be on display until Feb. 11.

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