The following excerpt is taken from my Visual Art Journal late Summer interview.
Visual Art Journal: Your artwork captures a deep sense of emotion and vulnerability. How do you channel these feelings into your work?
Cierra G. Rowe: I was a very sensitive child who grew into a very sensitive woman. As a painter, I lean into this. The coldness and warmth of the past have, in part, shaped me. As an artist, all that you have are the things that you are composed of, to channel and capture into any given work of art. My paintings hold that sense of emotion and vulnerability because as a person, that’s a very big piece of who I am. I translate the intimate and erratic combination of pain and beauty through paint, often favoring positive aspects over dark. I encode myself within my paintings through my selective palette and style by focusing on what is important to me and blurring everything else. There is an intense hunger in painting. I am addicted and once I’ve completed a new piece I feel satiated.
Visual Art Journal: In your artist statement, you mention that your painting style was born out of trauma. Could you share how these experiences have influenced your creative process?
Cierra G. Rowe: Trauma makes you see things differently, sometimes it reduces you to a shell of yourself. When you break, you break and there’s no manual for how to unshatter yourself. Eventually it makes that which is truly important stand out and that which is not, fade. I remember caring about dumb things — silly things that, in hindsight, should not have mattered. Then things happened and in the aftermath I realized that I did not care about those things and felt shameful that I ever allowed them to distract me. Trauma has influenced my creative process by allowing me to wholly understand that I do not have to prove anything to anyone and that I do not have to keep up with the chaotic speed of modernity or the digital world and how it shrinks people. As an artist, I represent myself through my paintings. I’m allowed to change. I’m allowed to evolve and become better or fall down and get up again. I can transcribe soul and significance through my paintings, while holding tight to my artistic traditions, knowing that there is great liberation in being true to oneself.
Visual Art Journal: You mentioned that you often wonder why it’s called ‘painting,’ implying a deeper connection between pain and creation. Could you elaborate on this connection and how it manifests in your art?
Cierra G. Rowe: I feel that there is always a reason behind the creation of any given work of art – unseen things that compel an artist to create their masterpiece or go further by throwing themselves into their craft. Often, that reason is revealed to be pain. The most tortured people often create the most beautiful works of art. Their sadness, strife and anguish seem to turn them inward, over and over until they have formed a bond with their tools, leading to works of art that inexplicably connect with others on a much deeper level than surface. Personally, I began isolating myself at a very young age and because I was reclusive – I only communicated through my art. Overtime, that led to me grasping a deeper understanding of art as a whole and what color and emotion is capable of.
A very special thank you to VAJ, especially Anna Gvozdeva for taking the time to interview me. My full Visual Art Journal interview can be read in full here or read in print by purchasing a copy of Issue eight here
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