CARSON CITY – Artist Bobbie Ann Howell grew up in picturesque Lee Canyon, a small community nestled in the Spring Mountains northwest of Las Vegas.
She attended school in Indian Springs and at Western High School in Las Vegas and in those formative years, she developed a love for the visual wonders of Southern Nevada.
She creates multi-media works which draw upon her experiences growing up and working in Nevada. Her cut-paper drawings and collaged photographs convey just some of the complexities of Nevada landscapes: desert valleys as well as mountain-top vistas; bustling cities as well as wind-swept small towns.
“The array of vistas before us is continually inspiring as is the use of literal and figurative points of view,” she said. “Exploring, drawing, and photographing the textures and colors that fall across the landscape while also taking note of places where intersections between our natural landscape and urbanization seep together. Patterns that evolve in contrast to organic forms that lead me into to my slight obsession of cutting snowflake and mandala patterns that become symbols within my compositions inspired by the world that surrounds us, the range of events, people, and places that impact our perceptions, elements and ideas to create works that may alter a viewpoint, and possibly to make us look twice to see or feel something more.”
Howell, a Nevada Arts Council Visual Arts Fellow, is featured in an exhibition, “Vistas and Viewpoints” at the Nevada Arts Council’s OXS Gallery. The exhibition will be in place from March 19 to May 11.
Vistas and Viewpoints is an exhibit derived from influences found within the Nevada landscape; the places of intersection between landscape and urbanization, the edges of the desert and the sweeping lines of progress. Patterns and symbols are created to form compositions inspired by the naturally built environments and the range of things that impact human perceptions.
Howell has a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Abilene Christian University, Abilene Texas, and a master’s in sculpture and drawing from Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville, Ill. She has been on the faculty at Stephen F. Austin State University, UNLV and the College of Southern Nevada teaching, drawing, life drawing, sculpture, foundry, two and three dimensional design and painting.
Managed by the Artist Services Program at the Nevada Arts Council, the OXS Gallery is located at 716 N. Carson St., Suite A, in Carson City. It is open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and admission is free.
A reception and artist talk featuring Howell and sponsored by Smith’s Food & Drug Stores, Inc., will take place at the gallery on April 17 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. The talk begins at 6:15 p.m.
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