Unique fresco paintings are pure poetry
Kirsten Bowen remembers how much her father loved poetry — when she was a girl, he would recite long poems from memory — and how he also practiced calligraphy.
Today, Bowen, 54, incorporates both poetry and printed words into her paintings, text-based frescos that are often florals and other nature-based scenes. But the text is rarely obvious; rather, the words sneak up on viewers as they take in the vibrant colors and images in Bowen’s works.
“Wish You Were Here,” for instance, titled for the Pink Floyd song, surreptitiously includes 40 words from the lyrics. Bowen neatly incorporates the rounded forms of the letters with the round blossoms of her flowers.
Twenty-seven more paintings by the Ohio native are on view through the end of the month at the Marcia Evans Gallery in the Short North. The works, which are diverse and represent Bowen’s range as an artist, are nicely installed in the small gallery.
The front room showcases, among others, Bowen’s “Night Garden Series,” large scenes of multicolored flowers. A dark band at the top of the canvases indicates nighttime, a playful contradiction to the bright and obvious glory of the blossoms.
“Night Garden 3 (Sisters),” also a large floral scene, pays homage to siblings with a poem written by Bowen. “Night Garden 1 (23rd Psalm)” incorporates a line from the “Lord is My Shepherd” psalm.
“A lot of the themes in my work have to do with breaking out of a trial or a time of darkness,” Bowen said, adding that she likes disguising the text in her works so that viewers have to work a bit to decipher it.
“It’s nice to have a little help reading it,” she said. “It creates an intimacy.”
Her taste in poetry — her own works and those by others — is eclectic. Quotations from Mark Twain, John Muir, Marcel Proust, Sister Sledge, Barry Gibb and others can be found in her paint
ings.
In the back room of the gallery is a series of realistic paintings reflecting Bowen’s time at sea on Long Island Sound with her partner during days of the pandemic. One large painting captures the fishing boat on which they lived, a solitary craft resting on wavy blue water. Hung next to this are a series of small detail paintings of boating accoutrements and views from the vessel.
All of Bowen’s works are created in colored Venetian plaster — how the old Italian fresco painters created their works. In the eco-friendly technique (there are no toxins from oil paints), Bowen begins with white plaster, adding dye for her vibrant colors.
Though she lives in Westchester County near New York City, Bowen grew up in Youngstown and spent 25 years living in Columbus. She graduated from the Columbus College of Art & Design and, from 2003 to 2007, she owned and operated the Kirsten Bowen Gallery in Bexley.
She returns frequently to Columbus and last month completed a large mural of the peace sign on the side of a building at 1000 Dennison Ave. in the Short North.
Bowen’s works are at once edgy and comforting. Her selection of quotations is inspired and her method of weaving them into her paintings is subtle yet forceful. She plans to continue the format as her signature style.
“I wanted to create something unique,” she said. “I want to make art that nobody else does.”
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