Wendell Lowe
“The fellowship was lifesaving for me when I was at my lowest. I was able to get out my camera and take new shots, experiment and create new pieces, and have some needed respite from treatments.”
Battling stage-3 cancer and Parkinson’s Disease, artist Wendell Lowe needed something to keep him calm and moving forward. The Creative Renewal Arts Fellowship became just that. Lowe’s fellowship allowed him to acquire a high-quality camera, which he needed to bring his work to a larger, more-detailed scale. Next, Lowe ventured to St. Joseph, MI, where he explored the Krasel Art Museum, the Box Factory artist studios, and various local galleries.
Lowe also bought admission to a Lois Main Templeton retrospective exhibition at the Indiana State Museum, where he got to meet the artist herself. “Her work is so alive and has taught me that my artwork needs to be more loose, magical, and alive.” Templeton suggested he try adding charcoal drawings into his paintings and encouraged him to not fear mistakes.
In the small town of Elgin, Illinois, which he described as “an up-and- coming arts community,” Lowe held an exhibition of his artwork. The exhibition doubled as a fundraiser for a local scholarship fund, for which more than $2,000 was raised. He also showed his therapeutic finger painting collection at the Indiana Landmarks Center, granting him recognition on local news TV channels and a feature story in NUVO Newsweekly. His next projects will be in the Stutz Building so that he may take his artwork to even grander scales.
