We have all likely experienced the\nfeeling to some extent: your life is moving at a pace out of sync with your\npeers, you are behind, you might not reach the next milestone that is expected\nof you. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Kate Rowekamp\u2014a Cincinnati\nprintmaker, illustrator, and animator\u2014uses her art to think about the\nsociocultural expectations we face at different points in our lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSomething that I think about a\nlot is this abstract timeline that is used to determine how much success we\nhave achieved in our personal lives,\u201d she said. \u201cIn our culture, I feel it is a\npretty common expectation that by the time you have reached a certain age you\nshould have found a significant other, married, bought a house, had children,\netc.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rowekamp\u2019s dimensional drawings of whimsical \u201cand occasionally eerie\u201d creatures were displayed and sold at the silent art auction at Miami University\u2019s 29th Annual Writers Harvest, a benefit event for Oxford Community Choice Pantry. The event also included a raffle and reading from local creative writers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rowekamp said her artwork provides a space in which she can grapple with emotions and comfortably share them with others. When writing an artist statement for a show, she said she conveys the general idea behind her artwork, rather than writing a specific explanation for each piece. Despite this intentional ambiguity, she said people still understand her message. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe most surreal experience for\nme is when someone I\u2019ve never met comes up to me at a show and shares their\nstory of how they relate to the work,\u201d she said. \u201c…It always blows my mind to\nhave conversations with complete strangers where they point to specific pieces\nand describe what it means to them and without knowing, absolutely nail what I\nwas thinking when I made it. It is one of the things I love about being an\nartist, connecting and sharing with people who experience the same worries and\nfrustrations I do, in a way that is somehow more articulate than putting it\ninto words.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Apart from her own experiences and\nemotions, Rowekamp said she draws inspiration from her interest in natural\nscience, researching and illustrating plants and animals as part of her work.\nShe said she is also interested in the visual aesthetic of graphic novels,\nvideo games, cartoons, and tabletop games, which are all visible influences in\nher artwork.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rowekamp\u2019s experiences as an\nundergraduate student at Thomas More College and graduate student at Miami\nUniversity had a great impact on her artist style. During\nher undergraduate career, she apprenticed for Casey Riordan Millard,\na Cincinnati-based artist whom she considers her greatest\ncontemporary influence. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cBut even\nbefore I knew her personally, I was a huge fan of how she used whimsical\nillustrations to confront deep emotional conflicts and her interdisciplinary\napproach to creating work,\u201d she said of Riordan Millard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Prior to her\napprenticeship, Rowekamp said she thought artists had to pick and stick with\none medium. She said Riordan Millard opened her eyes to combining multiple\napproaches in order to create an immersive environment for the viewer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another\nmajor influence on Rowekamp\u2019s style is Edward Gorey, whom she said she\ndiscovered at a time when she was developing her personal style as a student.\nWhen she saw his surreal, dark ink illustrations, she said she knew they were\ndoing the kind of things she wanted to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In graduate school, she said she learned more about incorporating technology into her creative process, which shaped her style and process today. She experimented with computer animation. This required drawing characters onto segmented paper that was scanned, assembled, and animated digitally. Though the puppet parts were originally intended to facilitate the animation development, Rowekamp said she enjoyed cutting and assembling the parts and applying fasteners so they could be displayed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
With limited\naccess to tools and technology after graduation, Rowekamp adapted to using a\nscroll saw to create similar work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Her current\nprocess still begins with a simple, unshaded drawing. Then, she transfers the\ndrawing onto colored paper, adheres the paper to a wood sheet, and inks the\noutline. Using the scroll saw, she cuts the wood to the shape of the drawing.\nLastly, she applies additional colors with ink, watercolor, and gouache.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rowekamp advises\nyoung artists and art students to always be creating something. When she\nfinished graduate school and began teaching, she said she made this her\npersonal rule. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cEven if you\nonly have a little bit of time here and there, it is important to keep your\nskills sharp and to have that creative outlet. Plus, you never know, you might\nhit on something that sparks a completely new body of work.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She also\nencourages students to seek out every possible creative opportunity and\ndiligently look for ways to make connections. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cA lot of\npeople are scared away from pursuing a degree in the arts thinking there are no\nemployment opportunities out there\u2014which is absolutely not true!\u201d Rowekamp\nsaid. \u201cThe trick is you just have to work hard, constantly apply for things, and\n(if you\u2019re anything like me) try not to let your nerves get the better of you\nin the process. Rather than looking at job postings and thinking you have no\nchance, let the person in charge of hiring make that decision.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By: Erin Adelman We have all likely experienced the feeling to some extent: your life is moving at a pace out of sync with your peers, you are behind, you might not reach the next milestone that is expected of you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2819,"featured_media":786,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[211,210,1],"tags":[187,25,186,185,144],"class_list":["post-784","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-books-we-like","category-interviews","category-uncategorized","tag-erin-adelman","tag-interview","tag-kate-rowekamp","tag-visual-art","tag-writers-harvest"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/creativewriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/784","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/creativewriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/creativewriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/creativewriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2819"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/creativewriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=784"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/creativewriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/784\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1003,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/creativewriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/784\/revisions\/1003"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/creativewriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/786"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/creativewriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=784"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/creativewriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=784"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/creativewriting\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}