Patrick Rowen-Assemblage Artist

Patrick Rowen "The Picture Show, presenting Nebraska artists in the permanent collection of the Sheldon Memorial Art Gallery, Lincoln, Nebraska."

[NARRATOR] "Patrick Rowen, professor of art at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, uses this large space as his classroom and his studio. In this space are the results of Professor Rowen's wanderings in nature. There are pieces of wood, bones, fossils, rocks. He spends time in the Southwest wandering through the areas where the ancient people were hunters and gatherers. Patrick Rowen's ideas are influenced by prior cultures and their respect for the environment."
[Patrick Rowen] "You could say... or I could say that for me it's a religious experience. And it is my religion and it's my way of life and it's a lifestyle and it's... And that's what it is. I'm beginning to liken some of the things that I'm doing to prayers. And I don't mean to sound facetious or dramatic or anything like that. But that's what... that's what they represent to me."
[NARRATOR] "Patrick Rowen tends to work against traditional techniques. His work is distinguished by his extraordinary use of materials from his environment. And he does environmental art. In this shaded area of the East Campus of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln he created a special garden. It contained vegetables, stakes and rope, mirrors and was laid out according to the movement of the sun in the summer sky."
[Patrick Rowen] "I was trying to... I even tried to plot very carefully the path of the sun across that particular piece of... that site. Which again was fairly common phenomenon if you refer to more ancient cultures because they were very dependent upon the movement of the sun."
[NARRATOR] "This work was dramatically altered during a storm when a lightning bolt struck one of the giant trees and the explosion shot pieces of wood hundreds of feet, like spears."
[Patrick Rowen] "I mean, I got the definite impression somebody was trying to tell me something. But I did... I did collect those... those pieces and I felt that I had to do something with them. Again, using them in the... what I would consider to be a more respectful sort of way but in a more appropriate sort of way and that... Presented as being almost like weapons. Because I felt threatened by them."
[NARRATOR] "Patrick Rowen is represented in the Sheldon Art Gallery by Spirit Boat. It is a tribute to an ancient people... a past civilization."