Todd Lowery has incorporated his passion for art into his livelihood.
The Springfield-based artist splits time between creating art and teaching at Drury University. He received his bachelor of fine arts at Missouri State and his master of fine arts at The School of Visual Arts in New York City.
Lowery has had a successful career with multiple solo exhibitions around the world — Sweden, Greece, Paris, Berlin. Lowery’s May 2020 exhibit was presented at a local gallery in Paris.
Q: How did you get started in art, did you have a passion for it?
A: You know, I don’t know. It’s like a lot of people — it’s something that I did a lot on my own. I didn’t think of it as a career option necessarily until I got a little older. I got my start in sixth grade when the sixth-grade art class at Logan-Rogersville was publishing a cookbook. They were collecting recipes from all the families and planned on selling it as a fundraiser. They wanted it to have illustrations from kids in the class, and they ended up using three of my drawings. One of them was the cover. So then it was like “Hey, wait a minute.” So it began in sixth grade. It was one of those things as a kid where you were validated, and I was like, “Oh, this could be a thing.”
Q: What types of art do you do, like media?
A: For a long time, I defined myself by not defining myself when it comes to my practice. I would refer to myself as a pluralist, meaning when I was in grad school at SVA, I did primarily painting and drawings, but I also did sculpture, installation, and photography. Within the last few years, I have primarily done painting and drawing, mostly because I teach it. It is also where my stronger skill set lies. When I’m exploring an idea, I always do choose the medium that is most appropriate to get at those ideas. Because I am most comfortable with those skill sets, they primarily are the mediums that I use.
Q: How do you get your work out into the world?
A: For a while, I didn’t show a whole lot outside of university kinds of situations — academic locations — but that started changing with Facebook and Instagram. I use both of those quite a bit, and my Instagram is pretty much a portfolio account. By just posting pictures of my work, I have had people contact me and want to buy pieces for themselves. I have also had people that I did not know, who were familiar with my work. Then I met them, and they are like, “Oh, I love your work.” I do travel now, so that helps. It is a series of networking on a personal level. That, social media, and travel get people to become more aware of you and your work.
Q: How has art influenced you?
It has made me more confident. It was through making stuff that I realized it was OK to be myself and be authentically myself through my work. I have said this in class before, but really, I’m an introvert. It is hard for me to be in group situations in front of people. I can do it now because of all the teaching, and I have done it for so long. It all ties back to the fact that I can talk about my work and I can be myself through my work, and I realized I could be myself in front of people.
