Rebecca Lowry paints on wood with oils and acrylics. The people who encounter her artwork see the people of Botswana come to life through those basic supplies.
At least that’s what friends and colleagues said at a reception this week for a month-long exhibit of Lowry’s work at Koffee? on Audubon Street.
Inspired by her travels to Southern Africa, Rebecca Lowry has been painting since 2006. “I guess my heart is connected globally to some extent,” said Lowry “so I’m inspired by things that are going on in our world that we may feel no connection to immediately.” She said she believes people can “connect on a personal level” if they delve into the subjects.
Lowry, who lives in East Rock, said she studied southern African economic and political history in college. “By junior year I found a study abroad program in Botswana that looked great. So I went in 2001. Then after working for a few years in economics research I got an itch to go back, which I did in 2005 for a year to volunteer with AIDS organizations.”
Most of the paintings inspired by that experience, exhibited at Koffee?, are oils. Lowry said she had started out using acrylics when she “was sort of afraid” of using oils.
“They’re [oils] kind of messy,” said Lowry. “You can’t just wait and start over, unless you want to wait a couple of days. But they are a little bit richer, and once you get sort of comfortable with the idea behind oils it’s a little more fun.”
Lowry isn’t a formally trained artist. Taking a painting course in college after several art classes in high school, she started painting on her own three years ago. After what Lowry calls “a long break,” she’s rekindling an old flame with her love for painting.
“You can see in the people’s faces that they’re happy and they’re still persevering through whatever hardship they’re facing,” said Selvan Kumar. Kumar is a financial education coordinator at a group caled Innovations for Poverty Action, where Kumar also works.
Dean Karlan attended the reception with his wife and three children. “I love the way she brings in her various experiences from some of the countries that she’s visited and some of the people she’s met and how it’s influenced her artwork,” said Karlan, a Yale economics professor (pictured with wife Cindy, three children and Lowry).
Dean Karlan attended the reception with his wife and three children. “I love the way she brings in her various experiences from some of the countries that she’s visited and some of the people she’s met and how it’s influenced her artwork,” said Karlan, a Yale economics professor.
Roxanne Crane, an employee at Koffee, said she’s been working there on and off for two years and is very pleased with this month’s “artist of the month” selection, which is chosen by the manager.
“I love this month’s artist,” said Roxanne Crane, a Koffee? employee who studies art therapy at Albertus Magnus. “I think her work is beautiful. I like the way that she uses wood as a backing; it’s novel and it really fits.”
“It has feeling to it,” said Crane. “It really feels as though there’s a connection to the people in it.”
Kerry Brennan, whose familiar with Lowry and her work, got her first look at a painting called “Six Faces” (pictured). She praised “the way that she pulled out one of the faces. It kind of looks like a filmstrip to me.”
Lowry said the painting “Hallmark for the World” (pictured), her favorite, has a matriarchal message.
“The idea behind it is that grandmothers do a lot of caretaking in general, in every country,” she said, “so it’s inspired to some extent by grandmothers who do a lot of caretaking for their children and their grandchildren.”