The following excerpts were taken from my in depth interview with SHE The Magazine, from a few years ago. A very special thank you to Michelle Granara.
Cierra G. Rowe: As much as I'd love to gloss over things and only highlight the positives, I have to be frank; It has been very difficult, especially these years leading up to revisiting oils. When you keep breaking a skeleton's bones, it's going to be hard for it to find its footing after a while and soon, all that it can do is sit there and be a pile of bones. Certainly there for a while I felt like this and once I finally picked myself back up, I understood that to grow you must break.
STM: What does it feel like for you when people interact with your artwork?
Cierra G. Rowe: It feels exciting. Sometimes it makes me feel vulnerable, depending on the piece and other times, I don't feel anything at all. I paint for me, so when someone else views or interacts with my artwork, it does intrigue me but in a subdued way.
STM: Is painting your calling? If so, why?
Cierra G. Rowe: I should think so. When something is a part of you, you don't know what to call it because it is simply there. You only know the words and terms accepted by a majority to refer to something as. Painting is no different. That is how you know that something is truly yours; when you don't need a word to define it. I often wonder why it is called ''painting''. Maybe pain begets creation. The world does not stop for your pain, so in dark times you must gather things to make your own light. You learn to survive and pick up the pieces. Art was my glue and now it's my wood.
STM: What other painters inspire you?
Cierra G. Rowe: As a female painter I sometimes feel that it is expected of me to have other painters whom I look up to. This has never aligned with me or my art, being that my painting style flourished from retreating into myself, embracing my personality and evolving from experience. I have no painters or artists who inspire me aside from my husband. Though his impatience would not allow him to continue painting, he continues to be my modern muse due to his insight, candor and supportive nature.
STM: Why does art matter to you?
Cierra G. Rowe: Art matters to me because it documents the everchanging and absolute passing of time. It shows how something, somewhere, even if only in the mind of the artist, looked at a certain moment in time. Through art, you observe the layers of living through someone else's eyes — you sample their life. It is more intimate than a photograph and more elusive than sound because there are only hints within color and line that narrate thought patterns, emotion and memories that led up to the artwork's completion. Viewing a work of art is touching someone from the past. That is connection — art connects everyone and ''everyone'' means that no one is alone.
STM: What is your mission or message for the world?
Cierra G. Rowe: The noise of this world is profuse and intense. The world stage cannot hold everyone. I have not thought of a message or mission and it would be selfish of me to pretend to have either.
STM: Why should art matter to others?
Cierra G. Rowe: My notions are mine and I cannot force my view of things onto anyone else, however, a world without art is a candle without a flame and a candle without a flame makes it hard to see in the dark.