Ode to Linda Oh dear this is really a sad occasion. We have lost an artist.
I am sure every one remembers when they saw their first Linda Bowlby art. We immediately felt the rightness of color and its form. Yes, that is yellow or is it butter or is in sunlight on the water? Purple! or is it the veins of an iris, an orchid, a cut plum? Often you would bypass color and see the painting as an entity in itself. Remember, Luxuriant Wet Soil generating life forms in green and gold. And she was only beginning. She was creating poetry with a trowel. She was fearless and confident. Linda’s work can not be defined as painting or sculpture, as
“Firebird” by Linda Bowlby
two dimensional or three dimensional because she SAW color as form. Paint is colored, literally, it is pigment ground into a medium. By itself is it color? To an artist color is much more than paint and is only seen when it becomes part of our experience. To create that experience, I think, is the job of a colorist, which I think Linda was. And I, for one, will never know exactly how she made these works. I was hoping to learn some of her secrets which I know she would have been happy to share her secrets. She was already teaching students in her gallery. She was a perfectionist and set for herself the highest archival standards. And she was becoming an Art Activist. She had just applied to be on the board of Gallup Arts. She had just bought and renovated the building that houses her Free Sprit Gallery and o p o. I think the best thing Gallup can do is to help promote the many serious artists we have. Linda was about to put all her energy and resources into this effort. It is a tragedy for her friends and family and our community that we have lost her. opo Gallery will be open during ArtsCrawl with a memorial showing in honor of Linda. March 2018
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