The Drying Barn, Axton VA 1975 Sculpture

Darrell Bowles is a painter born in Roanoke Va. in 1960. He received his BFA from Virginia Commonwealth University in 1982 and relocated to NYC where he embarked on a career in the scenic industry as a sculptor, fabricator, scenic, and art director. After three decades in the industry, he withdrew, and now dedicates his creative energies solely to his artwork. At a young age he was drawn to the arts, and was greatly influenced by the skills and work ethic of those surrounding him: constructing, fabricating, sculpting and painting formed the foundational base of his formative years. REFLECTIONS…REMINISCENCE The vivid memories of landscapes of his youth, objects crafted by his grandfather’s hands, the recollections of his working class family’s heritage as coal miners, farmers. and carpenters/craftsmen along with their steadfast appreciation of nature contribute to his current work. The dichotomous aspects of his semi rural upbringing and his study of fine art are gently balanced, as Darrell’s work simultaneously nods to Meiji era Japanese Tansu furniture, and Le Corbusier’s color theory which focuses on natural color pigments and their balance in nature. His work draws parallels from these disparate worlds and challenges if they actually are. All this contributes to Darrell’s affection for pure earth tones and the tactile essence of natural materials. The dimensionality of his wall sculptures are crafted from deconstructed pallets and other found lumber. These abstracted narratives, reductive in form and color, are landscapes and still lifes capturing places/moments in time. Each artwork, a homage to his roots. The darkened wood harkens back to stories of coal dust covered West Virginia mine shafts, creosote soaked railroad timbers, and SW Virginia drying barns. The architectural-like geometric structure illustrates Darrell’s love of crafting and building, passed down to him from his grandfather. His echoed memories are visible in his color palette reflecting such visual memories as the red clay earth and the lucid green tobacco grown on his great-grandfather’s farm where he would spend his summers.