Bio:

James Trowell was born in 1957 in Greenville, South Carolina, raised in Tucker, Georgia and currently lives and works in New York City. Graduating Magna Cum Laude, he received his BFA in Graphic Design/Advertising from the University of Georgia in 1979. He has worked as an art director at several top national advertising agencies over the last 4 decades. Now retired, Jim is currently continuing his education through The School of Visual Arts in NYC and Glasgow School of Art.

Artist Statement:

I put the mouse down. I unplugged the computer. I found my hands again.

I was a skilled artist as a young person. Confident, with a good eye and a deft hand, but I went dormant for decades tethered to a computer as a design professional. I stopped all painting and drawing. After retiring, I dove into varied mediums that were once familiar but now pushed my hands with more maturity (graphite, ink, paint, crayons, bleach, cardboard, photocopies, etc). Recently, I opted for multi-sheet drawings, often breaking down an image to quadrants in order to work modularly and to enlarge the overall scale. I have experimented with fast, bravura ink resist sketches as well as highly detailed crayon and graphite drawings. And I’ve also been concurrently collaging with various materials. Whether purely representational or with a lean to abstraction, my favorite work is when I am surprised at what I have uncovered or allowed to breathe again. I simply let my hands explore and tell me where I need to go next, proudly defying all neat singular categorizations of media and subject matter.

Instagram: @trowell_art

Course: Collage Improv | ILC-3422-OL

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