Rowena Murillo: The Show and the Tell
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I feel a little hesitant to write about Rowena Murillo’s work, because I feel quite unsure about how to describe how it effects me. I’ve been thinking about this the last few days, and the only thing I can come up with is that Rowen is so in it. She doesn’t stand outside her work and create what she thinks will sell, or even what she thinks people might need. Instead she creates what is present. And you know what? It is exactly what people — at least what this person, needs.
I think part of it is that Rowena has a naturally perfected balance of the show and the tell. She doesn’t show us too little, making it impossible for us to get at the meaning. And she doesn’t tell it too us to straight, which would make us resistant to the obviousness of the message. Instead she gives us just enough direction to get us into the rabbit hole, and the pull of wonder takes us the rest of the way.
Speaking of rabbit holes, don’t miss what Rowena is doing on her blog right now — a new series of Flying Girls as an altered book, rooted firmly in the words of Miss Alice of Wonderland. And as you do your holiday shopping, please remember her well-stocked Etsy shop with affordable prints.
Someday I will have a datebook with page after page of Rowena’s goodness. Someday I will have a painting as large as my living room wall of Flying Girl Swims, or Explore Undiscovered Lands. Someday we will share opposite sides of a second-hand table, painted red, and make wonders. But until that day, I think we all should say a little “hallelujah” for the way Rowena and her Flying Girls help us live in our own skin. Can I get an “Amen?”
Artist’s Statement: Rowena Murillo
”I almost never know what I am going to paint until I put the brush to the paper. Or perhaps I have an idea of where to start, but the process of creating transforms the concept, the idea, and the artist.
Visions don’t come real. Accidents detour the plan. Unexpected happenings change the goal. Synchronicity picks the path. But I keep going. I keep looking at what I have and seeing what I could have. I am guided by the process.
My philosophy on life is much the same– follow the serendipity and acknowledge the beauty, and through that, find meaning.”
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November 23rd, 2009 at 5:39 pm
“I am guided by the process.” No wonder Rowena & I are soulsisters. Thank you for sharing her work here. I want that datebook too!
November 23rd, 2009 at 7:41 pm
Amen! What a great tribute to Rowena, & a great way to describe it, too. I’m often touched by her artwork & her words. Thanks for giving her the attention she deserves! And no, I didn’t mean to rhyme just there.
November 23rd, 2009 at 8:58 pm
This is so awesome, Rachelle. Thanks for doing this. And I can’t say how much it means that you wrote I perfected the balance of show and tell. As an artist, a poet, a novelist and a teacher, I have always aimed for this. Thanks again.