Nicholas Fowler

What is your professional name? Where do you live and how does that place influence you?

My name is Nicholas Fowler and I am from Laurinburg, North Carolina. Despite most of what I make being about emotions and mental issues, I am enormously inspired by the plants and animals of North Carolina. Their aesthetics and behaviors are really interesting and fun to replicate, and frankly they just feel like home. Those pieces feel more like me than the pieces directly about me.

Do you have family, friends, or fellow artists who support you in your work, life and art making and how do they make a difference in your life?

My family and friends are my biggest supporters in my art. It helps that I come from a family of artists. I have seen metalwork and photography my entire life, so in addition to being surrounded by it, being an artist was fully supported.

Can you describe the time when you first realized that creating was something you absolutely had to do?

I originally went to school for engineering, and took some art classes on the side because I needed something I enjoyed to even out everything else. I met some of the grad students in the art department there and after getting to know them, I realized that I wanted to make art more than anything else. I switched majors by the end of the year.

How has your work changed or developed over time?

At first my work was extremely precise and I could not do a thing without something to copy. It has slowly evolved into using my references as symbols. Now I am at the point

where I abstract everything I can to try to twist and morph my references into something new and exciting.

What are you trying to communicate with your art?

I mostly try to communicate abstract concepts like mental illness, emotions and interpersonal conflicts. The artwork shown here, however, are more direct. They are about the creatures, their lives, how they make nests, and cannibalize each other just to get the materials they need.

Do you have any creative patterns, routines or rituals associated with your art making?

Nearly constant research for at least a day before I start a new project. I spent a week researching facial muscles before I made a skinless self portrait. For my frogs I spent about three weeks researching which species would be best for what I wanted and learned about both their anatomy and behavior.

What element(s) of art making do you enjoy the most and why?

I enjoy the meditative feeling of making multiples and castings. It is just super relaxing. Wedging clay is still what I go to when I am really stressed. I also enjoy the feeling of accomplishment I get when I finally finish a figure and everything looks how I hoped it would.

What is your most important artist tool(s) and why?

My hands. I do everything I can with my hands because they let me feel any bubbles. I pay more attention if I can feel something is wrong, instead of seeing it. I only use a tool if it is not sensible to work without one. For example, I only use a needle tool and a hand-made tool to form teeth and separate the lips from the body.

How do you know when a work is finished?

I know my work is finished when it looks how I wanted it to. If it doesn’t it is not finished.

What new creative medium would you love to pursue?

3d modeling. I have always wanted to try and make more large scale stuff but this is a much cheaper, space-efficient method than buying ten tons of clay.

Do you have a favorite piece?

Yes! It’s Pug. It accomplished everything I wanted it to. It got the simple message across and most people assumed the broken creature on the floor was an accident, and focused on that instead of the one on top actively being eaten. I actually made the

pedestals for them all so I could drill into it and put supports in to make some figures stand in strange positions. This is seen in Reclaim. But they looked balanced and the broken creature was more pressing to viewers so not many people actually realized it was a trick pedestal.

What's the first artwork you ever sold?

The first ones I sold instead of giving away are the ones I am showing here. I sold Bloat, Salvage, and Pug the night of the exhibition reception. I am still really appreciative to the person who bought them.

Do you make a living from your art?

No, I make art because I love it.

What are your goals for the future, for both work and life?

I want to have a stable job and income, while still having time to create art and be part of exhibitions. My biggest goals are to be happy, have work I am proud of, and make enough to live comfortably.

What interesting project are you working on at the moment?

I am taking what I learned from making and mounting these pieces to make a few companion pieces that focus on the impermanence of the self, and how our view of our past can help or hinder us.

What or who inspires you?

I am hugely inspired by animals and insects. The sheer range of behaviors has been a goldmine for ideas. I am also inspired by artists around me.

Do you have a favorite – or influential – living artist?

Ronit Baranga is one of my biggest influences. Her most popular work fuses human fingers and mouths onto dinnerware to turn them into their own living things. I did not find her work until I had already finished my work, but I absolutely love it

What work of art do you wish you owned and why?

None. If art is not available to the public, what’s the point?

Where do you find ideas for your creative work?

I watch a nature documentary a week and if I am lucky, I get into the subject, go down a rabbit hole, and end up with a piece.

What does being creative mean to you?

Forcing your thoughts out however you can. Lucky for me I can only get them out through a pile of mud shaped like a guy.

What is the best advice you ever had about how to be more creative?

No one is totally unique. So if you make what you like, someone else probably likes it too.

Salvage Ceramic, acrylic, spray paint

Pug Ceramic, acrylic, spray paint

Reclaim Ceramic, acrylic, spray paint

Reclaim Ceramic, acrylic, spray paint

Bloat Ceramic, acrylic, spray paint

Pug Ceramic, acrylic, spray paint