Art Collection Guide
Introduction Since opening in 2010, Fowler Volkswagen of Norman has developed a strong reputation for supporting local art, music and creativity through sponsorship of many community initiatives. This reputation is evident throughout the store, as original artwork from forty Oklahoma artists was commissioned and purchased to provide customers and employees a creative environment to enjoy. “We are proud of the talented artists we have in our community,” said Jonathan Fowler, vice president of operations for Fowler Holding Co, “so we want our store to reflect that creativity and financially support the work that these artists are doing.” Fowler Auto’s story began in 1973 when Bill Fowler opened Fowler Toyota of Norman with the belief that “where you buy is as important as what you buy.” The Fowler family has a long history of supporting arts and culture in the community. Bill and Mike Fowler have been long time supporters of the Western Heritage Museum, with Jo Fowler serving as a docent for many years. Terri Fowler has served on the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art, while Jonathan Fowler has played a strong role in developing arts in culture, as a founder of the Norman Music Festival, board member of Norman Arts Council and graduate of the Oklahoma Arts Council’s Leadership Arts program. This art collection includes three murals, two wall sculptures, seven works on Volkswagen parts, 20 twodimensional works, one sculpture and one 156 foot mural by 10 graffiti artists. Fowler Volkswagen plans to continually add to the collection over the years in support of local artists.
Matt Goad “dream big. think small” Acrylic on drywall
Oklahoma City artist Matt Goad has been working professionally as a graphic designer and illustrator for over 20 years, and venturing into the realm of paintings on canvas in 2007. Whimsical, geometric, simple and complex, his paintings of animals and nature draw inspiration from classic graphic design and pop art reproduction of the mid 20th century. The discovery of woodcut printing during college was a major turning point in Matt’s development of his illustration style he refers to as “chunkism,” utilizing stencils and acrylics to create a world where nature and geometry meet and have a baby. “Since I was a boy I’ve been infatuated with all things designed by Dr. Porsche and his family. As an artist I’ve always incorporated history or nature in my art. This mural was a chance to illustrate the history of VW. The small cute car with a dark past that went on to change the world for the better. Beep beep.”
Tony Westlund “Die nutzbar gemachte Kraft eines explodierenden Planetensystems” Mixed Media Installation, Salvaged VW parts, misc. fasteners, wood rings
Tony Westlund is a Mixed Media artist, with pursuits ranging from stencilism to found object assemblage, instrument building, and faux finishing. Okie born, with formative years spent in Washington State, and Austin, Texas, he returned to Oklahoma in 2006. Westlund bypassed traditional schooling for the ‘hard-knocks’ approach. Generally, his work can be recognized by the use of discarded mechanical objects, regular use of salvaged wood and textural paint effects all lending themselves to an aura of decay, and timeworn intrigue. “Artistically, my work begins with the discovery of objects, and that first spark of inspiration of what an object could be, not what it is. Digging a rusty treasure from the bottom of an old milk crate, or the back of a cluttered shelf is a vital part of the process. Knowing this piece would end up in a sleek, automotive showroom, I focused on geometric shapes, aided by the abundance of circles used in vehicles. Straying from my instinct to leave parts rusty and natural, I chose to highlight their form and details with bright paint, while pushing that energy even farther by the radiating composition.”
Graffiti Art Mural Chris Rogers, Kris Emery, Kris Kanaly, Robert Levering, Jake Beeson, Chris Foxworth, Jacob Vega, Ricardo Becerra Tirado, Evaristo Lopez, Jonathan Heckman, Dusty Gilpin
Artist Dusty Gilpin invited ten artists from Oklahoma City, Tulsa and Kansas City to paint Volkswagen and automotive inispired works throughout the service shop. The 160’ mural was created in one day, over eight hours. This mural was commissioned to give our wonderful service department employees some color and creativity to enjoy back in the service shop.
Hugh Meade
Hugh Meade works to influence the public aesthetic environment, using many of the same materials, techniques, and skills involved in the creation and installation of large public art works. Oddfab Design Lab was formed expressly to pursue commissions in public art. Whether through competitive applications for civic projects, or by direct commission from individuals or corporations, or even providing fabrication and installation of works by other artists, this aim is paramount. “I believe strongly in the power of public art to create a sense of place. When I picture any particular city around the globe, that picture almost always includes some piece of public art in one form or another. I think that architectural signage, when done well, is a form of public art. Certainly part of the visual landscape, at least.�
Nick Bayer “Going Places”
Nick Bayer earned his BFA and M.Ed. from the University of Central Oklahoma and his MFA from Kansas State University. He is currently the Creative Director at Taylor Foam as well as an active practitioner in the arts. Nick’s unique constructions have been shown regionally and his work belongs to many public and private collections. His mural work can be seen throughout the walls of the state of Oklahoma “Everything is going somewhere. Sometimes you just have to be patient enough to get to your desired destination. Sometimes just when you think you are there the journey begins. Going Places tells the story of a car and just when he thought his journey was over, his new journey starts.”
Jason Pawley
Jason Pawley is an artist working in living in Oklahoma City. Since 2000, he has exhibited his work widely across the region, committing to the career of full time artist in 2010. In 2013, Pawley founded Tall Hill Creative, an alternative art exhibition space and studio, in the residential Venice neighborhood. This studio is very mural based in its monthly art shows. He has created or been apart of over 20 murals at Tall Hill Creative. Most recent mural is of the Red Tail hawk on the south wall of VZD’S at the location of Western and NW 43rd, and the Cultivation Mural, encompassing the underpass at S. EK Gaylord Boulevard and W. Reno Avenue as part of Downtown OKC, Inc.’s Artist Invitational program.
Tom Ferris
Tom Farris has been immersed in American Indian art his entire life. The child of passionate collectors, Farris spent a good deal of his formative years in various museums, galleries and artists’ homes. Having such intimate contact with the genre, Tom found inspiration for his own growing artistic aptitude. A member of the Cherokee Nation and Otoe-Missouria tribe, he draws from his culture and his life-long influence of American Indian art to create his works. Bring up Volkswagen in conversation and everyone almost assuredly has a story about them. Volkswagen has played a role in so many important moments in pop culture history, whether, it was Andy Warhol painting a Beetle, VW’s becoming the unofficial vehicle of the Hippy movement, they have carved out a niche in the American story. Since Volkswagen has become an icon unto itself, I thought the best way to celebrate that was to capture iconic pop culture images on parts from the most iconic VW, the Beetle.
Ashley Smith “American Dream” Karmann Ghia trunk lid
Ashley Smith is a self employed artist and tattooer for the past 8 years. She co-owns No Regrets Tattoo OKC and paints for a living. She works alongside Tanner Frady painting signs, as well. “This piece was inspired by a classic Sailor Jerry image. Although VW is a German brand, I chose to do a very classic American image. An image I have tattooed as well from an artists that inspires most of my tattoos and style. I decided to keep the flaws and weathered colors of the original shell. The color was already very “American” feeling to me so I picked an image that would help keep that feel. Like the “American Dream” on a German car.”
Tanner Frady “FOWLER AUTO� VW Bus door, enamel
Tanner is a full time sign artist from Oklahoma City and co-owner of Brass Bell Studios. This piece was inspired by old truck lettering styles from the 1960s and 1970s.
Roaming Woodworks
Roaming Roots, comprised of artists Joseph Kunkel & CJ Morrison, began simply as an extension of their creative energies and has grown to become a full fledged experiment to continue to design lasting, intricate furnishings from local, salvaged wood around the 405 area, and from local sustainable providers. “Roaming Roots is about providing eccentric wood wares for the home. As a couple, we like to entertain the idea that we’re something of a great team, and have found a joint passion to pursue that has taken off rather quickly. Our designs are inspired by minimalism, southwestern, geometric, and Native American patterns. We enjoy hours of shaping the perfect piece.”
Chad Earles
Chad was born and raised in Oklahoma City and am a member of the Caddo Nation of Oklahoma. He received my BFA in Graphic Design from Atlanta College of Art in Georgia. He worked in Atlanta for eight years as a Senior Designer/Art Director creating print and interactive projects for a variety of clients in different industries, ranging from local startups to the Fortune 500. In 2011, he founded Nishology, his signature art and apparel brand with a mission to perpetuate Caddo art and culture by creating contemporary artwork and apparel that reference elements of my ancestors’ pottery and designs. He currently lives in his hometown of Oklahoma City, working as an independent visual artist and freelance graphic designer.
Chris Nguyen & Nathan Poppe “Fowler VW Community Photo Wall”
Nathan Poppe is a videographer, photographer and documenter of all things Oklahoma. He currently works as the Entertainment Editor at The Oklahoman. His work has led him to collaborate alongside some of the most talented people in his home state. Nathan garnered unique writing and production experience everywhere from his fellow editors at The Oklahoman to the ad agency VP’s at Ackerman McQueen. He has even survived filming Flaming Lips backstage tattoo parties and shooting an underwater music video. For several years, he has discovered art, film and music talent throughout the Midwest. The Flaming Lips, The Vaccines and The Polyphonic Spree are just a few of the prominent artists Nathan has worked with, and he shows no signs of slowing down. Chris “Quit” Nguyen is a portrait and food photographer based out of Oklahoma City who doodles on Thursdays. Chris was born and raised in Houston, TX. He attended the University of Texas at Austin and received a B.S. in Advertising. Quit, as his mom and colleagues call him, has been shooting for nearly a decade. Quit doesn’t take himself seriously, but he’s serious about his work. He is both a portrait and food photographer, but enjoys all genres of photography. For example: With event photography, Quit uses a street photographer’s mindset as he shoots from the hip and looks for candid moments. In his free time: he likes to travel, draw, and collect art & toys.
Dusty Gilpin “Classic Beetle” Aerosal & Acrylic on canvas
Dusty Gilpin is owner and designer of Tree & Leaf Clothing in Oklahoma City. His prints, design, and apparel are inspired by cartoons, classic cars, and the great outdoors. “I have always had a passion for classic cars. Growing up around a family of mechanics and automobile hobbyists always kept my car interests peaked. While my mechanical experience is novice, I really enjoy painting classic cars. I recently sold my 1969 Chevy Van and currently drive a 1974 Chevy Malibu.”
Erin Cooper “Bully Bus” Acrylic & Ink on canvas
Erin Cooper is a contemporary abstract figurative artist based in Oklahoma City. Erin grew up on the Oregon Coast cultivating a passion for creating visual art. She pursued a career in graphic design, and eventually formed creative studio, CooperHouse, with her husband. Erin began incorporating elements of fine art into her designs, and rediscovered her love of painting. Erin’s work is bright, energetic, and incorporates graphic elements and the human form. The mediums vary widely and include watercolor, acrylic, oil, pencil, charcoal, ink and wax pastels. Her style is marked by fearless use of color and detailed, yet playful compositions. For the Fowler VW commission, Erin used 1960’s Volkswagen color option as the palette for the painting. “My work is about creating relationships between divergent elements. These elements first communicate chaos that is then formed into something meaningful. My medium is primarily paint on canvas, but the exploration of various media is part of my process. I want to allow experimentation and emotion to co-mingle in chaos, but ultimately leverage the struggle and the unexpected challenges to create something that is relevant.
Brent Learned “Cheyenne on horseback” Acrylic on canvas
Brent Learned is an award winning and collected Native American artist who was born and reared in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. He is an enrolled member of the CheyenneArapaho Tribes of Oklahoma. Brent graduated from the University of Kansas with a bachelor degree in Fine Arts. He is an artist who draws, paints and sculpts the Native American Indian in a rustic impressionistic style. He has always appreciated the heritage and culture of the American Plains Indian. He tries to create artwork to capture the essence, accuracy and historic authenticity of the American Plains Indian way of life. “I create artwork to capture the essence, accuracy, emotion, and historical authenticity of the Native American Indian in a contemporary vision”.
Skip Hill
Free from any didactic or moral intent, tortured conceptualism or any social agenda beyond the “Politics of Love”, Skip Hill creates color rich and lyrical art exuding moods of epicurean delights in a mélange of sensual and sensory experience. Some of the most captivating parts of his mixed-media drawings are in their peripheral details – Tattoo expressive patterning, looping graphic lines, kinetic scribbling, Kanji calligraphy and African motifs. Like a shaman, Hill communicates freely between two worlds, between dream and reality, and manages to artfully coordinate his fantasy with his hand. His body of original paintings, drawings, murals and limited edition prints are in private collections and public spaces on both sides of the Atlantic and in South America. He has traveled, lived and exhibited throughout the United States, Europe, Southeast Asia, Brazil and North Africa.
Michelle Junkin “Oklahoma On My Mind”
Michelle studied at Bowling Green State University and graduated with a B.A. in both Studio Art and Religious Studies from North Central College in Naperville, Illinois. Michelle’s current work of modern mixed media acrylic paintings incorporate assembled, collaged, recycled and deconstructed elements exploring aspects of our interconnected overlapping relationships and common surroundings. “My art is forged by deep gratitude for life’s journey. It strives to capture the joy found in average moments; a sunset’s color combination, a pattern of brickwork, or the red Oklahoma dirt. Life is not without hardships. To convey this feeling of rich depth and history, I incorporate hand-assembled collage and/or other mixed media elements into landscapes with strong horizon lines. I scrape the painting with stainless steel blades. I add more layers and then deconstruct additional portions with a secret sauce. A highly textured weathered worn modern painting is left. It evokes both the feeling of “past” while spontaneously capturing a contemporary modern feel drawing the viewer into the vibrancy of the implied shared future.”
Bryan Boone
Bryan Boone is an artist and technology professional living and working in Oklahoma City. From early in life he has been captivated by architecture and construction. Today, Bryan works in mixed-media exploring modern structures, systems, and our relationships with them. “My work explores structures and systems, and our relationships with them. Subjects are set within their own complete worlds, full of backgrounds both noisy and organized. Each piece is the culmination of multiple layers of varying translucency. Forms may repeat through layers, getting stronger, while others slowly fade into the background. Repeated designs shift between renderings, leaving ghost frames that mark the passage of time. A piece is complete when the dynamic scene reaches a key moment of composition. It may be a blurred snapshot of frenetic activity or a portrait of a quiet and still scene.�
May Yang “Untitled (birds)” Mixed Media on panel
May Yang is a Tulsa based artist, printer and designer. She works with printmaking and mixed media techniques to produce work that processes the information overload common in our digital age. Currently, May co-owns Flash Flood Print Studios, a screen printing business in Tulsa that focuses on high-quality printing on both flat stock and textiles. “My work explores methods of image manipulation, commonly using typography and photography. In an increasingly digital age, we are constantly exposed to a stream of information. The image manipulation that occurs in my work is a method of processing the information overload commonly encountered in our lives today. Borrowing themes from the remix culture that is so prevalent in popular music, I “sample” bits and pieces of pre-existing images, transform them through my methods of manipulation and reassemble them into new works. These finished compositions represent both old and new, personal and global, design and fine art.”
Brooke Rowlands “Poppy Fields” Mixed Media on Canvas
Born and raised in Trenton, New Jersey, Brooke’s passion for creativity began with her Grandmother’s influence in the arts at an early age. As a self-taught artist, Brooke has been a proud resident of Oklahoma for 11 years. Her work consists of refined illustrations of an array of flowers, fish, and birds working in mediums such as Ink, Acrylics, Watercolors and more recently Monotype printing. Over the past 10 years, Brooke has been showing locally in Oklahoma in places such as the Paseo Arts District, and the Plaza District. Nationally, she has created numerous works for solo and group shows in New Jersey, New York, Colorado, and Texas . Her work has also been featured on the television series The Vampire Diaries, and also displayed on a 16’x9’ Billboard in Times Square and a 7 story building for the NY arts organization ‘’Artist Wanted’’. Currently Brooke works on her art at her studio in Oklahoma City, OK. She also volunteers for other arts organizations, and has served as a Committee member for Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition’s “Momentum OKC’’. Currently Brooke is seeking a BFA in Studio Arts at Oklahoma City University.
Taryn Singleton “83”
Taryn Singleton is a working artist as well as a programs associate for AHHA. Singleton received a BA in Studio Art from the College of Charleston in Charleston, SC in 2011. In 2015 she received her MFA with a concentration in Painting and Printmaking from the University of Tulsa. She exhibits her paintings, prints, collages, and embroiders locally as well as regionally. “I am interested in works that embody their own kind of life. Something that is both part of me and separate from me. I use pattern, light, abstracted forms and whimsical motion to convey a magical world that is composed from invention, experience, and observation. I start out with a small idea about a creature, relationship, or dynamic that I then work non-objectively to develop into a story or series of events. I am never entirely sure where I am going when I begin, but the journey is an important part of my process and my overall visual narrative.”
Scott Henderson “Vibratory Messages Communicated by Tethered Bees�
Scott Henderson is a working mural and studio artist in Oklahoma city, and is also the director and curator of smART Space galleries at Science Museum Oklahoma. His formal art training was acquired at the School of the Art Institute in Chicago and at the University of Central Oklahoma. He has been shown in many group and solo exhibition around the metro area and abroad. He mainly works in collage and mixed media with a focus on fantastic themes in correlation with self-identity. “This is a mixed media/painting that explores a world of imagination wherein the public can establish meaning around parallels within reality. My love of scientific illustrations mixed with the fantastic brought forth the design. It is based off an early 19th century book about the mysteries of entomology and a recent scientific paper on the thoracic vibrations of tethered bees . This painting suggests the biological within an orchestrated scene in an effort to blend beliefs surrounding the study of life and illusion. The intent of this painting is to create a sense of wonder in the viewer as wonder is described as intellectual passion and is often the catalyst for further study.
Aaron Cahill
NGHBRS is the graphic design studio of Aaron Cahill. He was born in 1978 in San Antonio, TX and graduated from Oklahoma Christian University with a BFA in Advertising and Design. His work has been showcased in various group shows in Oklahoma City, such as Tonic (2002), Momentum (2003), Chrome Chocolate (2006), Summer Thieves (2013) and at the Project 4 Gallery in Washington, DC for Everyware (2014). Aaron was an artist for the collaborative mural at 5600 N. Western with Jerrod Smith and Philip Danner, with his own art installation at 5123 N. Western.
Amanda Bradway
Born and raised in Oklahoma, Amanda studied art and graphic design at the University of Central Oklahoma. She eventually left school to begin working on her own art and fashion projects in a studio setting. Amanda was one of the first to open up her studio in Oklahoma City’s Plaza District in 2007, where she has worked tirelessly to not only grow her own business, but the district as a whole. Over the years she has exhibited nationally, volunteered with various local arts groups, organized large scale group art events for the community, and ultimately opened up an artist retail store and gallery in 2008. She currently owns DNA Galleries and works on her art and line of accessories full time. “Adventure is essential to cultivating creativity and establishing balance in everyday life. In this piece, leaves, petals and full blooms illustrate elements of nature surrounding and enveloping an outline of the human skull. Adventure is a part of our human nature so it is crucial to take the time to get outside and build our life through experiences. Life is short, go explore..�
Ruth Borum Loveland “Fowler Radial” Mixed media on canvas
Ruth Loveland was born in 1982 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. She studied art at the University of Oklahoma, graduating with a BFA in studio art and a minor in Art History 2005. She has maintained a working studio since 2005, in Norman Oklahoma. She has exhibited work in Oklahoma, Chicago, New Orleans, and Kansas City. Her work consists of mixed media two dimensional work as well as functional ceramics “My process has developed over as a slow accumulation of small discoveries. My techniques range from pencil and pen drawings, layering and sanding of dozens of different colored coats of primer, photocopy manipulation and enlargement of original drawings to use for acrylic transfers on wood and canvas. I love the surprise of taking a drawing and altering it with movement on the copy machine. My recent body of work explores bringing these techniques together. Everything I make is a meditation of gratitude, community, love, relationships, and repeating, altering, and multiplying the good in our lives. While some of the work carries personal meaning, my greatest wish is that it can be open for interpretation.”
Jennifer Allen-Baron “Empathy and Figs” “Love, Strength, and Pepper” “Hope, Dignity, and Cold” Acrylic on canvas
Jennifer Allen-Barron holds a B.F.A. in painting and a B.A. in French from the University of Oklahoma. She has shown her paintings widely around central Oklahoma, participating in numerous juried and invitational exhibitions. Jennifer’s art practice, work and volunteer involvement are united by her belief in the profound power of art to enhance lives and communities. “My paintings look closely at the built environment all around us. I remove my subjectssuch as everyday objects or urban spaces- from their typical context by enlarging them, manipulating colors and angles and exaggerating the effects of shadow and light. These three paintings of keys are part of a series of “portraits” of some of my friends. Keys are something that most everyone has with them all of the time, and they quite literally tie our homes, careers, travel, and recreation together. I became interested in the different ways my friends gather their keys and how different- and also how similar- the key chains are. In these paintings, they also stand in for my friends’ outer selves: shining contrasts against the swirling combinations of colors meant to symbolize each friend’s personality.”
Tommy Ball “Campus Corner” Watercolor on paper
Growing up in Sapulpa, as a child, Tommy spent many hours in the downtown area of Tulsa. After graduating High School, he attended and graduated from the University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma in Chickasha, and spent many days and nights in Oklahoma City. He found that I enjoy riding my bicycle at night, giving myself a different perspective of the night lights, reflection of lights and the neon lights in different cities in Oklahoma. Since I live so close to Tulsa, I spend many hours riding my bicycle into Tulsa from different directions, gaining a new perspective of the buildings I have admired all of my life. While I have a degree in photography, I spend most of my time painting with watercolors. “Historical Architecture dominates my drive to paint. Light, perspective, and perceived color serve as my foundation from which I build. Through imposing my perceived relativity and color expression, cohesion is created. My work is an instance of personal experience in the urban environment.”
JUURI “Fires” Acrylic and oil pastel on canvas
Julie Robertson is a Japanese + American artist born in Tokyo, Japan in 1983. She currently lives and works from Oklahoma in the USA. She is known for her abstract mixed media paintings featuring bold color and wild paint drips. Julie is self-represented, overseeing the sale of hundreds of original paintings and prints to collectors worldwide via her official Etsy shop and Facebook page. Julie Robertson’s vibrant non-objective works on canvas are created to express fleeting emotions. They are also a study of composition, color combinations, and her favorite interior design trends of the moment. These themes come to life through visual form and harmonious color relationships, along with wild splatters of paint and saturated scrawls of oil pastels. Though photorealism has its place in Julie’s world, she says that there is something utterly freeing about working quickly, and becoming wholly absorbed in the process of creating riots of non-objective color.
Maurice S. Perez “Rule of Three” Coffee and acrylic on duck canvas
Maurice Siegfried Perez was born in Kansas in 1987 and in his first few years of life as an army brat, lived in and visited places as diverse as Germany, Puerto Rico, Ft. Polk, Louisiana and El Paso, Texas. This early-life experience, as well as his own particularly diverse ethnicity, reflects in the ease and fluidity with which his work crosses substantive, stylistic, and aesthetic boundaries. After settling in Oklahoma just before his teens, Maurice discovered an affinity for freehand brushwork on the canvas and began developing a style focusing heavily on gestural energy, structural abstraction, and cool, often saturated colorization. His portrait work has earned him acclaim and commissions across the state, and serves as fuel for his abstract passion. “I want to become proficient in both the representational and the abstract and to reveal similarities between the two. My goal is to shed a light and reveal the beauty in the subtleties of life, to honor the past, to embrace the present, and to encourage a better future. “
Jessica Legako “Look Up” Stain on Birch
Jessica Legako is a painter who primarily uses wood stain; her work often involves the wood grain and natural movement of the wood. She has a BFA in Studio Art from the University of Central Oklahoma in Edmond, Oklahoma. Born and raised in Lubbock Texas, to a farmer and teacher were she was enriched with an outdoor lifestyle. As a young child she would sleep on the roof and observe the outside world. Her current work involves the focus of wood grain and its movement. She currently lives and maintains her studio in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. “My paintings spotlight perspective and create an illusion of distance. This series of work focuses on the wood grain and how it interacts with the wood stain and image. I choose the images that are personally nostalgic from my travels, childhood, dreams and aspirations. The images symbolize a longing that my heart has wanted or has missed. I paint with several different wood stains to create the depth and bring out the natural movement of the grain. I exert an immense amount of energy and motion in my actions contributing to the resultant image. I have always been a very passionate person and my heart has always longed for moments, places, or people I have never known.”