FREDERICK, Md. — Margaret Dowell’s journey from rising up on a Calvert County tobacco farm to turning into a celebrated artist is introduced vividly to life in her solo exhibition, “Dowell Farm: Previous and Current,” on show via Dec. 29 on the Delaplaine Arts Heart. The collection of oil work captures the historical past and essence of the 77-acre household farm in Sunderland, Maryland, which has been in Dowell’s household because the 1700s.
“My father was a tobacco farmer, and we grew up on what was the form of ancestral farm,” stated Dowell. “It has been in my household because the 1700s. We had tobacco, greens, animals, and firewood. It was a number of exhausting work, however I treasure that upbringing.”
Dowell, the eldest of three siblings, labored on the farm alongside her dad and mom, Leroy Dowell and Margaret Stevens Dowell, in addition to her youthful brother, James Leroy “Jimmy” Dowell Jr., and her late sister, Mary Dowell Herring. Tobacco farming, a cornerstone of Calvert County’s financial system for hundreds of years, was central to her childhood.
“We planted tobacco, picked the beds, hoed it, topped it, minimize it, and hung it within the barn,” Dowell recalled. “That life was college, farm work, and church.”
Her inventive journey started modestly. Dowell discovered inspiration within the pen-and-ink drawings that adorned the Calvert Unbiased newspaper, particularly in the course of the Christmas season. “This was within the 50s, mid-late fifties; they didn’t have images and actually cool, flashy stuff,” she stated. “It was all pen and ink drawings, and I used to be simply fascinated with the imagery from that point interval.”
“And a few of my kin labored for the Calvert Unbiased. That made it much more particular that they had been concerned,” Dowell continued.
After incomes scholarships that supported her schooling, Dowell obtained a Ph.D. from the College of Maryland. She later returned to Calvert County in 2011 to look after her getting old father, Leroy Dowell, who handed away 5 months later. Dowell selected to stay on the household farm, the place she continues to develop greens and maintain chickens.
Her work, many impressed by her private historical past, provide viewers a novel perspective. In “Leroy’s Items,” she captures the essence of her father, who introduced residence contemporary greens from the backyard. “That one is the anchor for the entire collection,” stated Dowell. “My dad’s palms carrying these greens—it all the time felt like a gift.”
One other standout piece, “Self-Portrait with Bush Hog and Ancestor,” depicts Dowell reclaiming overgrown fields with a bush hog, an homage to her ancestors. “The cranium within the background represents all of the ancestors I felt had been watching over me,” she defined.
Among the many standout items within the exhibit are Margaret Dowell’s self-portraits, the place she seems in a hanging purple costume—a vivid distinction to the earthy tones of the farm scenes surrounding her. The costume, although impractical for farming, symbolizes her twin identification as each an artist and a steward of her household’s agricultural heritage.
“I didn’t actually costume like that once I was bush hogging,” Dowell admitted with amusing. “I’d put on common farming garments, however as a result of I’m an artist and never an actual farmer, I put myself on this purple costume.”
Dowell’s exhibit additionally touches on the intersection of artwork and historical past. In “Dr. Margaret Dowell (2022) and Dr. Nathanial Carroll (circa 1850s),” she paints herself alongside Carroll, a younger man who labored on her household’s land within the nineteenth century to earn cash to buy his father’s freedom. Each Dowell and Carroll, regardless of residing centuries aside, achieved the outstanding accomplishment of incomes Ph.D.s.
Different works within the exhibit embody “Heritage Roses,” a portray impressed by the 2 thornless rose bushes on the farm which have bloomed with a wonderful aroma since Dowell was a baby, serving as an emblem of resilience and sweetness amidst time’s passage.
“Tea Time” presents a whimsical narrative, depicting a wolf at a tea celebration on Dowell’s farmhouse porch. The piece was impressed by a Halloween reminiscence in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic when Dowell hosted an out of doors gathering for her younger great-niece, who was captivated by a good friend’s wolf masks.
In the meantime, “Trying to find Glory” explores the complicated legacy of tobacco, a crop deeply intertwined with Calvert County’s historical past. The flowering tobacco plant, rendered in vibrant, inexperienced tones, contrasted with a galaxy background that counsel transformation and hope. Dowell displays on tobacco’s twin position in historical past, from its financial significance to its affiliation with habit and fashionable scientific developments, similar to its use in vaccine improvement.
“I labored with habit scientists from Johns Hopkins, and we did a e-book referred to as “Habit and Artwork,” and I additionally did some reveals on that subject. So I had each of these issues happening,” Dowell stated. “I nonetheless champion my heritage 100%, however I additionally championed the individuals who had been making an attempt to surrender on habit.”
“I hope viewers take away that I did this for them,” stated Dowell. “I wished to inform little tales with my artwork. I consider the magic occurs when the artist’s historical past meets the viewer’s historical past, after which there’s a spark.”
To be taught extra in regards to the exhibition, go to Delaplaine Arts Heart. A more in-depth take a look at Dowell’s work is on the market on her web site, margaretdowell.com.
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