Contemporary artist Honor Bowman pulled into Anchorage in November 2013. A New York transplant by way of Savannah, Ga., she was initially worried she wouldn't find her tribe in the frozen North. Now, just shy of her two-year chip as an Alaskan, she's slated to exhibit her second body of paintings highlighting her (relatively) new hometown. In September, she and a graduate school colleague from Charleston, S.C., will stage a joint exhibition at the International Gallery of Contemporary Art called "Broad Spectrum: Painting from the Low Country to the Last Frontier."
"This place has been such a blessing," she said, standing in the IGCA Center Gallery, surrounded by sculptor Alanna DeRocchi graphite-enhanced figures.
DeRocchi's show, titled "On Migrating," provides an easy segue to ask Bowman about her transition from Savannah to Anchorage. As a recent graduate of Savannah College of Art and Design's Master of Fine Arts program, Bowman knew she would miss the collaboration and community of graduate school and wanted to connect with other local artists.
"I emailed the (IGCA) director when I first got here and she said come volunteer," said Bowman. That connection with director Enzina Marrari, a visual artist, turned out to be pivotal.
Urban connections
"One day Enzina said, 'We have a hole in our programming and need a show ASAP, in two months. Can you make a show of paintings?'" said Bowman, recalling the exchange with Marrari that led to her first Anchorage exhibition. Marrari was also able to rent Bowman a studio at IGCA (they have three available to local artists). All logistical barriers to creativity addressed, Bowman got to work exploring her new city.
"My work is all about place. And going to a new place is really renewing for me," she said. "When you're looking at something for the first time through fresh eyes, you're noticing the details. How things tie together, commonalities, color combinations. Those visual things really pop out for me. I love looking at things from a fresh perspective, then that will turn into a body of work."
Her first show came together as "Modern Frontier Living," and it unintentionally became her introduction to the University of Alaska Anchorage Department of Art. The department chair, Steve Godfrey, came to her opening and urged her to fill out an adjunct professor application.
"Within three days, I was hired," she said. "It's helped me feel cemented. You don't want to just sit and work in a vacuum. For me, it's important to have students."
In addition to teaching college students, Bowman moved from IGCA volunteer to IGCA manager—the gallery's only paid position—and has also taken on some classes and private art students through Blaine's Art Supply.
"I just love it. I come home excited. My last class of the day (at UAA) ends at 9:45 p.m., so I come home and I'm jazzed and I have to try and go to sleep," she said with a smile. "Seeing students start to process their ideas using the skills you're giving them is not just refreshing, but kind of sustaining. It sustains me knowing people want to make art."
Making her own way
Every artist struggles for legitimacy, said Bowman. You become adept at explaining—or avoiding—conversations about what, exactly, it is you do.
"It hurts when anyone questions it: 'Is this even a thing? Can you do this?'" she said. "Because you know somewhere in your mind you're thinking, 'I don't know, can I?'"
She admits she's lucky to have parents who have always encouraged her to pursue art and music—she earned a scholarship to play cello in her undergraduate college orchestra and considered making music her career. But immersing herself in New York's art scene after college tipped the scales toward visual art.
Six months after she met her now-fiancé, photographer Philip Hall, she told him, "Listen, I feel like a fraud. You're dating this girl who has money, has her own apartment in New York, has this job in the music industry, is doing well. But really I'm just thinking about not doing this anymore and totally just being a hobo." She told him she wanted to take a year off to build a portfolio and apply to graduate school.
"He barely knew me and was like, 'You should do it. I will help you. Go to grad school.'"
She did and her ties to Savannah College of Art and Design remain strong even after graduation. In fact, the school bought out her first IGCA show, so there's a little bit of Anchorage now living in the deep South.
Bowman is currently hard at work on two upcoming shows—one the joint exhibition in September at IGCA, and the other a solo exhibition at Anchorage Community Works called "Settlers" that explores Anchorage's mobile home communities.
"People want you to tell them what your next step on the ladder is, but there is no ladder," she said. "I'm making my own career." Alaska, she added, is great as a place that embraces that mentality. "It's kind of a do-it-yourself and do-it-your-way culture. That's kind of freeing."
Cover art for the 61°North Arts Issue was created by Honor Bowman.
This article appeared in the Fall 2015 issue of 61°North. Contact 61° editor Jamie Gonzales at jgonzales@alaskadispatch.com.