Thursday, August 30, 2012

Piecing it Together: Romy Owens


Guest Author: Cayla Lewis

Professional Basics Grant: the keanues
Romy Owens, Rob (Pretty Day Blue Sky), 
photographs and thread, 37x31", 2012
Oklahoma City artist, Romy Owens has been selected as one of five photographers for To and From Oklahoma, an exhibition opening September 7, 2012 at JRB Art at the Elms. During this same time, the Paseo Arts District’s Photofest will also be taking place. OVAC’s Professional Basics Grant will help Owens professionally frame the majority her new body of work for this exhibition.

Owen’s combines multiple parts or multiple photographs to create entirely new compositions, her main inspirations being change and control. Inspired by man-made structures that are neglected or abandoned, Owens documents the change of these structures through the line, color, and textures, as though these elements tell the story of the life of the building. 

She then, with “obsessively controlled hand stitches,” pieces the composition together, to create something new – asking herself, “What am I really hoping to change and what am I really trying to control?”

The Oklahoma Visual Arts Coalition invests in artists’ project through grants for growing careers, creative projects and exceptional continuing education. Find grant guidelines and application here. Free workshops about how to apply will be held September 8 & October 13.