AOTA-240223 - Gwendolyn Zabicki, Tim Lowly, SPotlight Footlight Players

This week on Out in the Air, there is a spotlight on two artists featured in South Shore Arts' Neighbors Exhibit: Gwendolyn Zabicki, a representational artist whose work reflects daily life with hidden contradictions, and Tim Lowe, who creates highly emotional and spiritual work surrounding his profoundly disabled daughter, Tema. There is also a spotlight on Footlight Players' musical production of The Unsinkable Molly Brown, running from March 1st to the 17th. The show discusses the process of selecting the play and interviews Rick Henderson, the vice president of Footlight Players, who also has a role in the production. Additionally, there is an interview with Gwendolyn Zabicki, one of the exhibiting artists in the Neighbors Exhibit at South Shore Arts. This week on Out in the Air features two artists featured in South Shore Arts' Neighbors Exhibit. Representational artist Gwendolyn Zabicki, whose work reflects daily life with hidden contradictions, and Tim Lowe, who creates highly emotional and spiritual work surrounding his profoundly disabled daughter, Tema. Our spotlights on Footlight Players' musical production of the unsingable Molly Brown, running March 1st through the 17th. Express yourself you are, and show the world your heart. Express yourself you are, and show the world your heart. You're in the know with Esther and Larry, out on the air today. They're in the know with Larry and Esther, out on the air our way. Express yourself you are, and show the world your heart. Express yourself you are, and show the world your heart. Welcome. You're listening to Art on the Air on Lakeshore Public Media, 89.1 FM, WVLP 103.1 FM, our weekly program covering the arts and arts events throughout Northwest Indiana and beyond. I'm Larry Breckner of New Perspectives Photography, right alongside here with Esther Golden of The Nest in Michigan City. Aloha, everyone. We're your hosts for Art on the Air. Art on the Air is supported by an Indiana Arts Commission Arts Project Grant, South Shore Arts, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Art on the Air is heard every Sunday at 7 p.m. on Lakeshore Public Media, 89.1 FM, also streaming live at LakeshorePublicMedia.org, and is available on Lakeshore Public Media's website as a podcast. Also heard on Friday at 11 a.m. and Monday at 5 p.m. on WVLP 103.1 FM, streaming live at WVLP.org, and Tuesdays at 4 p.m. on WDSO 88.3 FM. Our spotlight interviews are also heard Wednesdays on Lakeshore Public Media. Information about Art on the Air is available at our website, breck.com, slash, A-O-T-A. That includes a complete show archive, spotlight interviews, plus our show is available on multiple podcast platforms, including NPR One. Please like us on Facebook, Art on the Air, WVLP, for information about upcoming shows and interviews. We'd like to welcome to Art on the Air Spotlight from the Footlight Players. He's going to be representing the Knicks' upcoming show, opening March 1st through 3rd, 8th through 10th, and 15th through 17th. Kind of a musical you don't often hear about, but has music and lyrics by Meredith Wilson. It's called The Unsinkable Molly Brown. Rick Henderson is vice president there, but he's also playing a role there, and he's going to tell us about that. Rick, welcome to Art on the Air Spotlight. Hi, Larry. Welcome, Rick. Thank you. So, first of all, we'll quickly touch on your role as VP, what you do for Footlight, and, of course, the passing of Bobby Commendera, which my wife worked with many times over the years, but it's got to be a sad experience for the whole Footlight family, who's done so much to establish everything there. So you may speak to that, and also some of your role as VP before we talk about The Unsinkable Molly Brown. Yes, absolutely. Bobby Commendera will be definitely missed, a longtime member of the theater, a lifetime member, just a great guy, and he'll be deeply missed. As for me, I am the vice president, basically just assisting the vice president with day-to-day operations. You know, we are a member of the board. We just take care of the problems that need to be addressed. So that's basically it for me as vice president, but this is my seventh show in Footlight in the past couple of years, and I'm always happy to be on stage at Footlight. It's a beautiful theater, very intimate, very small setting, just a great place to have a show. When you walk in there, you're close to the stage, and you feel like you're part of it. So it's a great place. So the selection of The Unsinkable Molly Brown, not one that's often seen, but tell us a little bit about the process of selecting that and maybe a little bit about the show and what role you have in it. Right. Well, the version we're doing is the 1960 version. It's a film version that has Debbie Reynolds in that, and so it's the older version. It's more fictionalized than the newer version of the play that's available. This one takes a little bit of liberties. It kind of shows Molly Brown as the rebellious kind of fun-loving person that she was. So this one takes place, you know, just basically tells about her life and her romance with Johnny Leadville, but actually the part that I'm playing is the part of her husband, Johnny Leadville. Johnny Leadville Brown, actually. So you're doing like three weekends on this show. Tell us about some of the rehearsal process. You've obviously been in rehearsal for a while, but tell us about all that. Well, the rehearsal process is a lot of work, but it's a lot of fun. I've gotten to meet some really wonderful people. Jamie Anderson is playing the part of Molly. She's wonderful to work with. I've gotten to know her quite a bit since we first met at the very first rehearsal. Everybody's getting along quite well. Laura Meyer is a wonderful producer. I'm sorry, director. She's directing this production and does a great job on musicals and just is a great talent. We're really happy to have her at the helm here. We've worked Monday through Thursdays, basically, for the past several weeks rehearsing this production, and it's coming along quite well with the singing and the dancing and the learning of the lines. It's always a fun process, but it's a lot of work, but it's very rewarding for us. So, Rick, can you give us a synopsis of the unsinkable Molly Brown? Because I'm sure there's a lot of people who don't know the story. Right. Well, as I said, this is the fictionalized version of Molly Brown. She was on the Titanic, actually, when it went down. She was one of the ladies on the Titanic. This takes place telling about her life. Basically, it's a rags-to-riches story, She's a very rebellious, free-spirited lady and quite a lot of fun to be around. She falls in love with Johnny Brown. They get married, and it tells about their life together. Basically, they get into a situation towards the end where Molly wants to go more for the riches rather than what Johnny has to offer for her. Then she has to make a decision. Does she want the love or does she want the wealth? That's basically the story along the way there. I know. The tag was Miners, Brawls, Love, Romance, Maritime Disasters, and a musical. It's got good music in there as well. I was not familiar with the songs going into this, but now I'm hearing them a lot. They're really good songs, and it's a very good production. The character has been often compared with some of the classic Broadway dames like Mame, Dolly, Mama Rose. There's kind of that genre. This is really the only second musical that Meredith Wilson, obviously known for The Music Man, that he wrote the lyrics and music. It's kind of a classic in that way. It's an interesting show. Probably, I bet you there's very few of the songs that are known, so it'll be kind of an experience for the audience to hear some of that music. Right. It's not as well known, I would say, than a lot of other musicals that you can kind of hum along to at will. The songs are a little bit more obscure, but they're very good songs. It's very entertaining for the audience, I'm sure. Excellent. Well, we only have about a minute left. What's coming up for Footlight Beyond Molly Brown? Well, our next production after Unthinkable Molly Brown is The Lost Boys. That will be taking place. Actually, rehearsals will begin right after this production finishes up, and that'll be directed by Laura West of Footlight Theater. She's the wife of the vice president, and she's directing this, and we're looking forward to seeing that. That's always a great way. Well, we appreciate you coming on. That's Rick Henderson. He'll be in there and also vice president of Unthinkable Molly Brown, March 1st through 3rd, 8th through 10th, and 15th through 17th. That's at the Footlight Players. You can find out information and info at footlightplayers.org. You can also call 219-874-4035. Rick, thank you so much for coming on Art on the Air Spotlight. Thank you, Rick. Thank you very much, both of you. Art on the Air Spotlight and the complete one-hour program on Lakeshore Public Media is brought to you by Macaulay Real Estate in Valparaiso, O.L. Patrician Senior Broker. And as a reminder, if you'd like to have your event on Art on the Air Spotlight or have a longer feature interview, email us at aotaatbrech.com. That's aotaatbrech, B-R-E-C-H, dot com. Hi, this is singer-songwriter Kenny White, and you are listening to Art on the Air on Lakeshore Public Radio 89.1 FM and on WVLP 103.1 FM. We would like to welcome Gwendolyn Zbicki to Art on the Air. Gwendolyn is a painter, curator, and lifelong Chicagoan. Her painting is very representational, and they contain hidden contradictions. Some focus on the daily, tedious, and nearly invisible systems that women put in place to maintain order and a functioning household. Her paintings also confront surfaces, both literally as well as what is reflected just beneath. Gwendolyn is one of the exhibiting artists in the show Neighbors at South Shore Arts. Thank you for joining us on Art on the Air. Aloha and welcome, Gwendolyn. It's very nice to meet you. Thank you. Thanks for having me on. What a nice introduction. Well, Gwendolyn, like our audience, always wants to know about our guests, their whole background in arts, or even if it wasn't in arts, their origin story. I would say how you got from where you were to where you are now. So tell us all about Gwendolyn. Sure. So I'm from Chicago. I grew up on the southwest side. And I can tell you about maybe the first piece of art that ever mattered to me. I was about 10 or 12 years old. And I've been to museums with my parents before, but I never really related to any of that. At that age, it just seemed like museums were full of pictures of naked people fighting. Like at 12, I was like, what was this for? So what mattered to me, what really reached me was an advertisement. It was on the side of a carton of Dole brand pineapple orange banana juice. And my parents used to buy this juice, and it would sit on the kitchen table. And I would just look at it while I was eating breakfast. And this advertisement, it was a promotional contest. You could win a pair of baseball tickets if you sent in the UPC code. And the advertisement showed this grandfather and grandson at a baseball game. And the grandfather was holding a baseball mitt up in the air like he was going to catch a fly ball. And he had this look of ecstasy on his face. He's so excited. And the grandson looks to him as maybe about five years old. And as a child model actor, he wasn't quite as good at faking emotion. So he looks happy, but like a little bored and not as good as faking it. Not engaged. Yeah, and the disparity between their emotional states is what stood out to me. And I've seen this image every day for weeks and weeks. One day I thought, oh, my God, this moment that I'm seeing is the last moment just before the grandson says some awful, horrible thing to his grandfather. He's just about to say, like, I'm bored. Baseball's dumb. And I thought, like, oh, maybe the grandfather couldn't afford the tickets. And he only got them because he won them from this contest. And that all he wanted was to share this special thing that he loved with his ungrateful grandson. And I thought, okay, this could play out in two ways. The best thing would be if they both forget this moment, like it never happened. That maybe if the grandson remembered what he did by the time he was old enough to apologize, his grandfather would probably be dead. This was so painful for me. Because at this age, like, I had said nasty things to my mom. At that age, I was embarrassed to be seen with her. And not because of anything she did, but just because I was at that age that I was embarrassed to be seen at all. And I remember I was at the grocery store with her once, and I snapped at her for buying generic butter. And, like, the packaging was so awful. And we didn't have a lot of money at the time. And I was just, I was ashamed to be poor. And then I was ashamed to be ashamed. And for me, all of this, this whole narrative was contained in that juice advertisement. And it was so devastating. I had to turn it away from me. And in the morning, I couldn't look at it. But really, though, it was painful. But it was my first deep read of anything. It was the first time I really sat and studied an image. And though it was painful, it was, like, it was evocative and it was moving. And I realized, like, oh, there's a whole profession of people that just do this. They just write and study images and make them. Advertising can manipulate very, very well, it sounded like. Yeah. Your 10 to 12-year-old self was very susceptible to it. I'm not sure what the people at Dole were after. They probably weren't trying to tell that story. But, my God, it was, you know, it was the beginning of, like, of deep reading and careful looking. And when I got older, I went to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. And I went to the University of Illinois at Chicago for grad school. And when I got out of school, I started making paintings at night. I would walk around in my neighborhood in Logan Square with my box easel and just set up and paint at night. And nobody ever bothered me, but I liked it. I liked walking around and catching little glimpses in people's windows and getting just a little snippet of, like, oh, what's that guy doing? Oh, he looks like he's looks like they're having a party. Or like, oh, that lady's got a bathrobe on and she just came out of the shower. But at the time I was reading Alexander Heyman, do you know him? He's a Bosnian-American writer and he wrote a lot about Chicago. He moved here and he had this very fresh perspective. He would walk around Humboldt Park and Ukrainian Village at night. And he said that Chicago was not built for people to come together, but for them to be safely apart. And, you know, he's used to the urban landscape, but I assume in Bosnia it's a little bit different than Chicago. And he wrote that in an attempt to build freedom and privacy and independence into our landscape, our architecture reinforces loneliness and isolation. And we see so we see we see evidence of life happening around us, but we're shut out from the private lives of other people. And I think Cyril Connolly writes about this, too, about like catching little glimpses of people. And and so, yeah, I painted for years, just like in the show at South Shore Arts right now, there's a painting of a man watching baseball. And you can see through the little Venetian blinds, the little slats, the brightly lit TV. And you can see the top of his head and he's balding a little bit. And there's another painting with it's called A Dad on a Ladder. And it's just some it's a man reaching up. He's changing a light bulb. And there are just these little fleeting moments that life is so full. It's so full of it. I feel like I've never felt the need to like really fantastic and, you know, extravagant things. Just every day has always been enough. So other than dull marketing during your school, during your schoolhood, did you develop a particular art sort of crush that? You know that I mean, you related very strongly to that ad was there then when you started to appreciate museums, maybe an art in a deeper way. Who did you gravitate toward? Oh, boy. Well, I was already in my 20s. I'm thinking there's a very important show I saw at the Met in I think it was 2010, 2011. It was curated by Sabine Riewald. And it was a show of 19th century romantic German painters who painted windows, all window paintings. And I love this show. I just love this show. It's so beautiful. And I've always loved the window is a motif. It's such a great thing to paint. And I learned from this show that the window historically has represented unfulfilled longing because it shows us the very close and the very far away. Yeah. For me, that was like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's it. It's like the dichotomy of attainable and unattainable or something. It's true. Yeah. Right there. But yeah, like loneliness and like, but kind of a hard to put your finger on. A desire. Yeah. Yeah. But before that, I always loved, I loved the Ashcan painters, loved the Ashcan painters. And the Art Institute of Chicago has a couple of good ones, a couple of John Sloan paintings. And boy, when I got to grad school, I got, oh, I got so much flack for that. People were like, oh, the Ashcan. So it was so unfashionable and so uncool to like that kind of painting. But they were painters who worked as newspapermen and they, I mean, before photography, they had to run around and quickly draw and document things happening in the city. And they're gorgeous paintings of urban landscape. But they paint everything. They paint trash cans. They paint laundry lines and kids playing in the street and dirty snow and all the stuff you're not supposed to paint. Just like ugly everyday stuff. And I always loved, I loved the Ashcan painters. Every painter I know, everybody loved John Singer Sargent. But he needed the opposite. He just painted gorgeous, rich people. But just such an incredible painter. But now it's funny, like, now that's all I care about. I tell people all the time, like, if I was a billionaire tyrant, my priorities would stay the same. I'd just fly around in my little private jet and collecting art and looking at art and probably visiting friends, too. But my life wouldn't be much different, really. So what is the flow of your series? You know, because you have very distinct bodies of interest in your work. OK, well, the paintings in this show, there's some older work and newer work. There's a few pieces that I painted during the height of the pandemic. We were stuck inside. I had a small baby. It was winter. It was January. We couldn't go anywhere. We couldn't do anything. And I realized for me, when I wasn't able to, there was no input coming in. I wasn't seeing friends. I wasn't doing things. So there was nothing coming out. There was no input. There was no output. I had nothing to paint. So I started just looking out the window and painting whatever I could see. And I saw, you know, people taking walks, walking their dogs, a man jogging, a woman pushing a stroller in the street. And I just started painting what I could see. So there's a few paintings from that period in this show. There's a painting of my neighbors in their kiddie pool. I could peer out the window and I could see them swimming around. And there's a painting of a neighbor from a flight. I was on a flight to Dusseldorf. And my seat neighbor was this chatty, delightful older woman named Josephine. And she could tell that I liked to talk and I wanted to talk. And we had a couple drinks and we just hit it off. She was telling me all about New York. She is a professor emeritus at Juilliard. And she was telling me about a lot of personal stuff and a lot of stuff about aging and don't worry about getting older. It's great. And she told me New York is a great place to be old and single because everything you need is walking distance. And she said, come visit me sometime if you're ever in New York. And so a few months later, I did. I visited her. We had dinner. And she showed me her apartment, a teeny, teeny, tiny New York apartment with a huge grand piano in it. Took up the whole space. And she played some music for me and she played Chopin and Brahms. And she was telling me more about Brahms. She was saying he was in love with this woman named Clara Schumann. And Clara was married. And when Clara's husband died, Brahms was hoping like, oh, this is my chance. Maybe we can be together. But they never did for some reason. They had this kind of relationship, but they were never really together. It's a really strange affair. But he wrote this song for her, this beautiful song. And when you listen to the song, you can hear the hopefulness in it. And even if you don't know the background and the complicated romance story, you can still tell. It's just a very hopeful song. And I wanted to make a painting of her, of Josephine, my airline friend. And I just wanted to capture who she was. I wanted to make a painting that did that, that showed her as confident and wise and beautiful. And her body in this painting makes kind of a triangular shape. It takes up the whole painting. And I think she's sort of powering. And she's looking over her shoulder at us. And she's got just like a little smile. But I made this painting for her. And then I was going to send it to her. And she's like, I want this thing. It's so big. It's not going to fit in here. And I'm like, it's supposed to fit. And I'm like, okay, well, I'll just keep it. I'll put it in the show. Yeah, there you go. You know, a couple more personal things I was going to ask you is, first of all, how COVID impacted you in terms of, was it a productive period? Did you withdraw? You know, some artists have responded differently. And the second part of that is you talked about having a baby and a family. Has that changed your perspective on your art? Oh, definitely. Yeah, COVID slowed everybody down. I think at first, for me, I had a one-year-old when COVID started. And at first, it was great because I wasn't going out. I wasn't going to openings. I wasn't going to parties. But nobody else was either. So it was like, oh, good. I'm not missing anything. But then as it progressed, it got worse. It got harder. So I was kind of managing these two challenges at once. And I think I am probably more efficient with my time, about as productive as I was before. My husband and I look back at our lives before a child and how much free time we had. We would sleep in and have lunch and spend some time just looking at our computers. Like, oh, what movie do you want to watch tonight? And you could spend hours just cooking and eating. We didn't know how good we had it. Everyone out there who doesn't have children, please, please, savor it. Enjoy sleeping and enjoy brunch. It is a life-changing thing. Even grandkids are life-changing, but not in the same way. You can still send them home to mom and dad. So any projects you're looking forward to do, you've explored. You have an interesting body of work, but like, oh, I've never tried whatever that is. So what is that? Well, that's a good question. Currently, I am working on a series of paintings of things covered by things. Sounds very vague. It's a strange starting point. But I have a show, a solo show coming up in November 2024 at Goldfinch Gallery in Chicago. And this is in preparation for that show. And for some reason, this is doing it for me right now. I love obfuscation. I love the mystery of it. Sometimes all you can see is just a hint of a shadow that kind of tells you what it is. And that's where I am right now. We'll see how it goes. Back in November. So after the current exhibit you have at South Shore Arts, do you have any upcoming exhibits or events? And do you teach classes? That's kind of a two-part question. I used to teach. I taught for years. I love teaching. I used to teach at the Hyde Park Art Center in Chicago. And adults are my favorite. Adults are the best. Because most adults have several paintings inside them they've been waiting to make. And adults are spending their own money and they want to be there. And they're the best. My favorite students. I'm not currently teaching. I wish I was. But I do have a current show at the Cleve Carney Museum of Art. That runs until March 10th. It's in Glen Ellyn, Illinois. It's a bit of a drive. But it's a beautiful show. It's a three-person show. What work is featured in that of yours? There are some snow paintings from the pandemic. There is a painting of my husband holding some noodles over his mouth and kind of luring them in, testing them to see if they're done. And more urban landscape pictures. There's a woman, a gray lady, who I saw over a decade ago. And I've been trying to paint her ever since. And she was wearing all gray and she blends in with this gray column. And as you go, you'll see my latest attempt to paint this woman. And then you have something at the Goldfinch Gallery in November? Yes. I have a solo show at Goldfinch coming up November 2024. It's a beautiful gallery if you've ever been there. I'll be ready, I hope. That's always the case, is getting stuff prepared for an exhibit or a show and everything like that. So in our last few moments here, we want to give you the opportunity to let people know how they can find you, like on the web, social media, and maybe if you're also interested in doing commissions. Yes, you can find me on Instagram. I'm Gwendolyn Z, G-W-E-N-D-O-L-Y-N-Z. Or you can find my website, gwendolynzabicky.com. And just guess the spelling. Google will get you there. And they can see your work at your website, your various lines of work. Yes, yes. It all makes sense to me. There's a continuous through line in my mind. But, yeah, go take a look. And we're real curious about how you got connected with Tom and Linda to do the South Shore exhibit. Years ago, I met Tom years and years ago at a Linda Warren gallery in Chicago. It doesn't exist anymore. But that gallery, for some reason, every time I'd go, I'd have the best conversations. I talked to the most people, and I always had the most fun at that place. And I was telling a friend this recently, and she said, oh, that's because they always had free drinks. Most galleries don't. But they always did. But I love that place. And I was sad when it closed. But, yeah, I met Tom there. And then Linda and me have been pals ever since. Well, that's fantastic. Well, we appreciate you coming on, Ardenita. It's Gwendolyn Zabicky. She's a painter from Chicago. She's currently in the South Shore Arts exhibit called Neighbors. It opened January 19th, but it's running through March 16th. You can see that in the Bachman Gallery. And you can find out information about her at GwendolynZabicky.com. And she's out there, plus on Instagram, Facebook, and such. Gwendolyn, we appreciate you coming on Art in the Air and sharing your story. Yeah, thank you. Thanks. Thanks so much. Art in the Air listeners, do you have a suggestion for a possible guest on our show, whether it's an artist, musician, author, gallery, theater, concert, or some other artistic endeavor that you are aware of, or a topic of interest to our listeners? Email us at aota.brech.com. That's aota.brech.com. Art in the Air is supported by an Indiana Arts Commission Arts Project Grant, South Shore Arts, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Hi, this is Dorothy Graydon. I'm a contemporary artist in northwest Indiana. And you're listening to Art on the Air on Lakeshore Public Media, 89.1 FM, and on WVLP, 103.1 FM. We would like to welcome Tim Lowley to Art on the Air. Tim is a Chicago-based artist, educator, and musician. He spent his childhood in South Korea, one of five children of medical missionaries. The primary focus of his work is his daughter, Tema, creating highly emotional, spiritual, and lyrical work around his profoundly differently-abled daughter. Frequent mediums he uses are a tempera and acrylic to create his realistic work. Tim is one of the exhibiting artists in the group show Neighbors at South Shore Arts. Thank you for joining us on Art on the Air. Aloha and welcome, Tim. I have to say, I was very, quite moved exploring your physical work, as well as your thoughts on that work and your, you know, daily life. It was, so thank you for this conversation. Well, thank you. I'm honored. Well, Tim, we always, our audience always wants to know about our guests and kind of like their origin story. So I would like to say how you got from where you were to where you are now. So tell us all about Tim. Okay. Well, I was a family of five children. I was one of five children. And in 1961, my parents were living in North Carolina. 1961, they went to South Korea, where my father served for the pedestrian mission as a hospital administrator. And my mother taught piano and organ and puppetry at a women's Bible college. So for me, that's pretty critical in terms of understanding where I'm coming from, because I grew up in a country that when we first moved to South Korea, it was not long after the Korean War. The country was impoverished and it was a devastated country. And so as a young child, I grew up with an experience, not personal experience, but an observational experience of poverty and devastation that I'm actually really grateful I had, because it's not something one generally experiences in middle class America. There's plenty of devastation there as well, of course. So that experience, in terms of what I just described, was important. I think there was also this curious phenomena of growing up in a country where you're not part of that country. You're not a citizen of that country. I never fully learned the language. My parents both spent like two years in language school, and my dad would still say even after that, when he was working, he was communicating at like a high school or junior high school level in terms of the understanding of the language. So there was always, for me, always a sense of I'm a foreigner in another place. But anyway, so that was probably in terms of a formative story of who I am that was really critical to who I am. How I came to pursuing art, I'm not exactly sure. I know I liked making art as a young person, and the story that always sticks in my head is I had already been making art. But when we were, I think my junior year in high school, which I think was in 75, we were in Decatur, Georgia. And I remember going to a high school art show, and somebody had made this drawing of a pretty girl. It was a really good drawing. I was like, I want to do that. So there was some sort of ulterior motivation for making art. But I think of that as the moment where I realized, yeah, this is what I want to do. And I had already been making art, but I think that period was a clarifying period in terms of this is something that is really meaningful to me. I don't think I would have articulated it this way. But it's a way in which I can reflect on and contribute to making meaning out of existence, out of being a human being. So when you say making art, were you drawing at that point? Painting? I was drawing. I may have dabbled in watercolor or something, but it was mainly drawing. I don't think I really got very seriously into painting until I was in college and became an art major. I was at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and I knew very clearly by the time I went to college that I wanted to be an artist. And I'm really grateful that school had a strong art department, and they pushed us. And I think the thing I learned the most, or I felt directed towards the most, is how to engage this stuff. That is, a lot of people think of paint as a means to an end. And the crux of the teaching, in some ways, the lack of teaching, because there's very little sort of like you have to do this and this. It was more a matter of you need to know what this stuff is before you make something with it. And so a lot of it was really sort of a deep engagement with material. That's so interesting, because I find there's like almost an austerity in the quality of your brush strokes. And did you start out with that? No. No. But my work in college was, the thing I was really, I don't want to get biblical here, but I'm going to go biblical for a second. And Jesus says something of the effect of, unless you become a child, you cannot enter the kingdom of God. So I said, okay, well, what does it mean to make art like a child? So I started thinking about, okay, I want to make art that's childlike. And I was looking to people like Paul Klee and Paul and artists who had this very sort of childlike approach to making art. In college, that was really kind of a dictum for me in terms of, I want to make art that has that kind of innocence about it and wonder about it. And that continues to this day. I'm really interested in making art that has that sense of, what is this thing? Who is this person? Right? It wasn't until a really key event for me was, I think my wife and I got married in 81. And I believe it was two years after we got married, we went to South Korea and taught English. I had grown up in Korea as the child of missionaries. But we went back to Korea for a year and taught English for a year. At the end of that year, we traveled to Europe for six weeks. And we were basically seeing a museum a day for six weeks. And I remember going into a place like the Uffizi in Florence and, excuse my French, but thinking, what the hell are we doing? When I saw this stuff, like, you know, the Primavera or whatever painting, it's like, what are we doing? And when I say we, contemporary artists, what are we doing? This stuff is unbelievably powerful. And we are somehow dabbling around in something without realizing, actually, you can do that. You can do something that has that degree of sincerity. Luminosity. Luminosity. I mean, when you see those paintings in person, it's like, this is unbelievable. How has a human being made this? What are we doing? So that was, to me, an utterly convicting experience. And when we returned from that trip to the United States, I taught myself how to work with that tempera and sort of slowly developed a practice that was moving more towards what I call representational painting as opposed to realist painting. I think of it less in terms of about being a realism as much as giving representation to a subject. There's more to that story. I'll talk more about that. You actually combine both of those in a single painting. You know, you both have a very, it's both of those, it's like a dichotomy of both of them. I'll look at them, and it's like so clear in one area, but then it shifts into something softer within the same painting. Yeah. Well, I am interested in multiple kinds of art making. Yeah. I decided to work with tempera almost on a lark. But there's something about tempera is a technique that requires a very sort of methodical and, for me, contemplative quality about it. And if you don't know what you're doing, you're going to wreck the painting. Because it remains fairly fragile. And so there's a kind of, I don't know the right term. It's not being aloof, but sort of a delicacy that being delicate, I guess, would be the better way to put it. So if you've gotten to the, let's say you're, and maybe there's 20 layers that you put on of these thin layers. When you're talking about that, are you meaning like the 21st layer has gone too far then? No. Is that what you're? No, no. It's more a matter of, well, I'm not really sure what my point was, but it's a different kind of, it's, how can I put this? For a lot of people, painting is, you take the paint, mix and a brush, bam, you're doing the painting, right? With this kind of painting, you have to be more strategic because you're going to build up layers and layers and layers. And you have to handle it in a certain way. Otherwise, you'll wreck the entire thing. It's very easy to wreck a tempera painting. And when I'm saying tempera, I want to make sure you understand. I'm talking about egg tempera. I'm not talking about the children's. Toaster paints. Right. You know, again, it was an encounter with work by people like Frangelico. When I was looking at the paint surface, I was like, this is so beautiful. In and of itself, aside from its representational aspects, it has this kind of, I don't know the best words to use to describe it. Well, the quality is also because there's minerals and you're making your own pigments. It's not like they went to the art supply store and picked up a tube of paint. The truth is the same pigments have been used throughout the ages. But the thing about egg tempera is one thing, you have to make it yourself because it spoils so quickly. So you can't really put it in a tube. So like every other day I was making my paint, literally taking the pigment, adding egg yolk to it, mixing it, all of which takes time. But also you learn about the fact that alizarin crimson doesn't like water. Well, you learn about each of these pigments actually have unique characteristics, which may have nothing to do with what they look like. But it tells you that a painting is made out of something, it's made out of a group that's as eclectic as any human group you could possibly meet. And so there's something to me interesting about a painting is not simply, paint is not simply color. Paint is actually pigment. It's made from something. It's either chemical or mineral or whatever. But it in and of itself has a kind of identity in addition to its color. And I think sort of the experience of that was helpful for me in terms of thinking about corporality, bodiness, right? We operate from a place of bodiness. Paint operates from a place of its unique components or its capacities. That was helpful for me to experience in terms of I'm not just making a painting. Painting isn't just a picture. It's actually a physical thing that... Yeah, an experiential experience. But also it is a thing that is from material that is of the earth that you can't simply regard the materials used to make it as a means to an end. It in itself has its own identity. Does that make sense? Yes, it sure does. It's like when we're relating to other people, we tend to relate to other people in terms of who we understand them in terms of their job or whatever. And sort of disregard the sort of complexity of their life. It's similar with a pigment. It has a history of itself. And I think when you engage that and think about what that could mean, it actually contributes to the meaning of what you're using it towards. You're listening to Art on the Air on Lakeshore Public Media 89.1 FM on WVLP 103.1 FM. So your subject matter, I think our audience would be interested in hearing, was influenced by a life event that's very profound. And I hope you would share that with our audience, how that influenced what you render in your work. Are you speaking of my life with Tema? Right. Yeah, okay. So our daughter Tema was born in 1985. And the specific circumstances are, frankly, too long to explain. But not long after she was born, she had a cardiac arrest. And we were very fortunate that a friend of ours who was a nurse actually was there when that happened. And she was able to do CPR. But then after she was resuscitated, she was having constant seizures. And we don't know if she had pre-existing brain damage or undoubtedly those two events would have led to brain damage. And so when she eventually went back in the hospital because of all that, and ultimately the result was mentally Tema is one day old. She's now 37 years old. Mentally, she's one day old. Everything is new to Tema. There's no sense of the possibility of learning. And I think for many people that sounds like an utterly catastrophic, and it was catastrophic, but this great loss. And in some sense it is. In another sense, I live with someone who is utterly innocent and who is, she's a wonder to live with. I mean, she's someone who lives in a sort of state of wonder. But I greatly value who Tema is. My work representing her, the show that's currently at the Art Center is a little bit unusual in that these are five very big paintings. Most of my work is not that big. Most of my work is much more on a human scale. But part of the reason, at the time I made those paintings, I was really interested in this subject that I think fairly early on in Tema's life, I realized there's something here that I don't see anywhere else. It exists, but in our culture, people like Tema are largely institutionalized. And because someone like Tema cannot give or refuse consent, it's ethically problematic to make art of them, i.e. they aren't represented because of that. And so as Tema's parent, I feel like increasingly felt I have the right to honorably represent Tema. And because she is part of a community that is largely invisible, I'm going to more than make a couple pictures of her. So I would say somewhere around a little more than a third and less than a half of my work has been work related to Tema. And again, I don't want someone to misread it as I think she's the greatest human on earth, but as a kind of representative of a community that because of who they are, that is lacking whatever it would take to give consent, they aren't represented. And saying unequivocally, that life matters. The life of people like Tema matters. But how does it become a meaningful thing to the broader community? Does that make sense? As humans, there's like an intrinsic comfort in predictability. As an artist, sometimes the opposite needs to occur. But with your life with Tema, what is the predictability? Are you still surprised? Are there things that like, whether it's a touch or a, I mean, are you, you know, are you still, do you still have surprises? Because your work, it's like, it's so interesting to watch the progression of Tema in your work. You know, and I, as I was looking at the photos and reading some of your words, I thought, what is the effect of gravity? Because you say a lot of times she's lying down on the ground because she doesn't have control to sit up. So when you have her, so what, you know, so what are the physical, I guess, manifestations of changing her gravity then? You know, because your paintings are all so different of her, I guess. I'm not sure I'm understanding your question. Yeah, I just, you know, I just got to wondering as I was, as I was reading your words about how a lot of, you know, because not all of the, not all of the paintings are represented with Tema lying down. And so I was kind of wondering whether you're, whether she is placed in a different position or whether you are just in your mind, just standing her upright or, and what's her reaction to this shift in gravity, I guess? What's my response or her response? Her response. Her response, she's pretty content with whatever, whatever position she's in. We will change her positions to, you know, for a variety of reasons. I would say metaphorically, what I am trying to do with my art is present her as, in a sense, standing as present to the viewer. Often I represent her lying down. That's simply because she lies down a lot. She can't stand on her own. And she, frankly, she couldn't really sit on her own unless she's somehow positioned. Right. Yeah, Tema of the Earth is such a glorious painting. Tema on Earth is one of the more, and she works, I mean, in terms of, it's so artwork that when you see the actual work, it is very disconcerting. It's intentionally so. I know I don't have a lot of time to talk about that painting, but it's sort of unique for me. But it's also trying to get at my intention in terms of my work with Tema. And as an aside, I'll say quickly, I'm also really consumed with work that's not related to Tema. A work which has a similar intention of reflecting on the meaningfulness of this person's life and what they're doing. And a lot of what I'm doing right now is in that particular direction. So, which, you know, because like your work, Tema's Objects, is very monastic in quality. And is that graphite that you're using for that? The drawing series, Tema's Objects? Yes. Yeah, those were graphic drawings. Those were done collaboratively with one of my former students. I can't remember. One would start it, another would finish it. I don't remember exactly the procedure. I think that was with Rachel McCann. Yeah, I'm interested in collaboration, actually. And one of the things I did a fair amount with when I was teaching, I used to teach at North Park University. I graduated, retired last year. I'm really interested in how one's art making can actually cause the viewer to think about their creative agency. That, to me, is something I'm really interested in. And the one thing, those big paintings I'm showing down there, those are unusually large for me. And the only thing I have about those, my only hesitation is, those are very intimidating. I can imagine someone saying, I can never make that. I don't want to have that be what someone walks away from. The truth is, yeah, you could do that. It just would take you some time. And a lot of paint. In our last few moments, we want to give you a chance to tell how people can find your work, social media and such. Sure. Tim Lowley. I think it's timothylowley.com. My website is still in progress. Instagram, Facebook, those are the places I would suggest going. Just Google Tim Lowley, Instagram, Facebook. I show up pretty quickly. Great. And we'll have a link on your picture on our website. Tim Lowley, thank you so much for coming on out of the air, sharing your deeply personal art journey with our audience. Well, thank you for the invitation. Yeah, thank you so much, Tim. Sure. Ciao. We'd like to thank our guests this week on Art on the Air, our weekly program covering the arts and arts events throughout northwest Indiana and beyond. Art on the Air is heard Sunday at 7 p.m. on Lakeshore Public Media, 89.1 FM, also streaming live at lakeshorepublicmedia.org, and is available on Lakeshore Public Media's website as a podcast. Art on the Air is also heard Friday at 11 a.m. and Monday at 5 p.m. on WVLP, 103.1 FM, streaming live at wvlp.org. If you have a smart speaker like Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, or Apple Siri, just tell it to play Art on the Air to hear the latest episode. Our spotlight interviews are heard every Wednesday on Lakeshore Public Media. Thanks to Tom Maloney, vice president of radio operation for Lakeshore Public Media, and Greg Kovach, WVLP's station manager. Our theme music is by Billy Foster with a vocal by Renee Foster. 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That's aota at breck, b-r-e-c-h dot com, or contact us through our Facebook page. Your hosts were Larry Breckner and Esther Golden, and we invite you back next week for another episode of Art on the Air. Aloha, everyone. Have a splendid week. Art on the Air