I
interviewed Lowe at her home in Los Angeles,
near Hollywood
and Downtown.
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Q. Let’s begin with your
painting, An Arab Mystery or Enigma.
A. This is one of a
suite of pieces I did in 1989 and 1990 that was exhibited at the Tiffany
Theatre in Hollywood. At the time I was sketching, studying and collecting
various ornamental structures such as Japanese crests, Greek and Roman Art,
among
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others.
I was especially interested in Persian ornament. Ornament as an extension of
the line and of the idea seemed a natural route to explore in order to find a
contemporary expression of thought. Persian ornament is exquisite in every
way and I used to go to LACMA to make studies of their extraordinary
collection of Islamic Art curated by Dr. Pratapaditya Pal.
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Q. Are these in any way political?
A. These are not so much
a political statement as a cry to preserve the beauty of this great culture. I
was disgusted to hear that great architecture and art was being destroyed, and
I felt it was time to bring attention to what was at stake.
Q. Did you continue to use
ornamental structures in work that followed?
A. Two postulates guided
me. One is by Paul Valéry, “In art there is a word which applies to all styles
and all fancies, and at one stroke dismisses all the pretended difficulties
with regard to the opposition of the relationship between art and that ‘nature’
which for good reasons is never defined: the word is ornament.” The
other is a retort that Kandinsky made to someone who criticized his work as
ornamental, “Ornament is not a self-contained whole, and when regarded as a
whole, it is dead.” So it was then I began to develop my own “lines of
thought”, so to speak. Ornamental structures used repetitiously without growth do
not constitute art. The stripping of an idea, the plain use and disuse of
symbols as artifice, abuse language. Language, like a dance by Isadora, is
built on meaning and spiritual strength Also,
I believe that random picking and choosing of these patterns is symptomatic of
a breakdown in our culture which you can see in the façade of a building or the
coarse lace of a dress line, or even the rim of your teacup. To blatantly
rubber-stamp these dead ornamental structures is a waste of time.
Q. Let’s look at this next
piece done later, The Three Gracies
A. Well, after using
various elements of visual illusion, including moiré studies, afterimages and
interactive colors, I was trying to find a way to show movement, and I became
interested in dance. This particular piece employs the “café-wall array effect”
to make a painting about tap dance. When you place alternating black and white
diamonds at close proximity, divided by a neutral color, a tilting sensation is
produced. At this time I was also beginning to enjoy stereo effects in painting.
So this is really a three-panel piece, when you overlap two panels with your
eyes, either by the “cross-eye” method or looking past the picture plane, a certain
array of diamonds stands out from the surface.
Q. And the title?
A. It speaks for itself,
I think, the tongue-in-cheek reference to the Three Graces with a little twist
and nod to a woman named Gracie—a great tap dancer.
Q. So now we arrive at your
most recent work done with lenticular lenses. What led you to using this
material?
A. The lenticular lens
helps to combine everything I have been working on. It has extraordinary
potential to create moving visual effects—effects that bring many elements
together to create one image.
Q. Why not make films?
A. I have thought about
this, too. The only answer I can give you is that the sense of time and place
is quite different, not to mention the production. A lenticular allows the
viewer to see an image static or moving. This kind of stasis is something I
enjoy when viewing any work of art. In film, the image appears and goes. The
movement is a forward sequence of events or images. Of course, great filmmakers
can easily seduce the viewer into thinking otherwise, and I do love the magic
of those flickering images. But I began as a painter and I like single objects,
I suppose. Then also, a lenticular is something I create by myself from
beginning to end.
Q. What are you working on
now?
A. I am working on a
series of geometric constructions that “flip” from one composition to another,
inspired by the way light falls on walls, shadows on buildings, architectural
spaces. I usually limit my composition to a particular grid, and draw within
the parameters of that space. It is an exercise in perspective, primarily. Both
compositions inhabit the same space and are related by certain shapes, colors, thus
they are able to transform in a way into a unique composition as the viewer
passes by.
Q. Are you influenced by any
contemporary artists?
A. Yes. Many great
artists have inspired me. Most recently, after I began working on these lenticulars,
I came across Josef Albers’ Structural Constellations again, which were
an immense help and inspiration for me. Speaking of films, there is a short film
by Moholy-Nagy called Light Display: Black—White—Gray
that shows the interrelationships of shape and light.
[Illustrations:]
- An Arab Mystery or
Enigma, 1990, gouache on paper,
17 x 11”.
- The Three Gracies, 1997, acrylic on canvas, 22 x 28”.
- Open Sesame, 2005, lenticular, 7 x 22”.