Trying to Get a Sense of Scale - Tim Lowly

This book was published by North Park University in conjunction with an exhibition by the same title at the Visual Arts Center of the Washington Pavilion in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Both the exhibition and the book are retrospective in nature, presenting art by Tim Lowly from the last 27 years, focusing on work related to a single subject: Tim's daughter Temma. As a newborn infant, Temma had a cardiac arrest, and the ensuing brain damage rendered her life as one on the margins of "normal" human existence. To some, such a life might appear limited in significance, but this body of work by Tim Lowly suggests otherwise.

“This handsomely-printed art book, produced in conjunction with an exhibition of paintings by artist Tim Lowly, not only chronicles a large body of work by a distinguished practitioner, but serves as a profound, poignant journey into the meaning of life, love, identity, and beauty. This is not a full retrospective of Lowly’s art; the work reproduced here is focused on the single, but central, strand of his work devoted to paintings of his severely disabled daughter, Temma. As a newborn, Temma suffered cardiac arrest and the resulting brain damage left her blind and disabled. Lowly’s paintings of his daughter—either of her alone or in the context of other family members and friends—have depicted her at every stage of her life (she’s now in her mid-twenties). These paintings have always resisted any sort of sentimentalizing of their subject, even in the face of the overwhelmingly powerful emotions that Temma’s life presents to the artist. The gaze in these paintings gives us Temma as she is, but they also demonstrate a love that is fierce and unguarded, and an unremitting desire to share Temma’s humanity with the viewer. Lowly works within the classical tradition of representational painting, but he has never been a photo-realist: these paintings often contain cryptic symbols, distortion effects like blurring, and other formal techniques to delve into Temma’s life from a range of perspectives. The book unfolds in a sensitive, imaginative way: it begins with journal entries by Temma’s mother, Sherrie, moves into a short story by Karen Halvorsen Schreck, and only then move into more intellectual and art-historical essays. The contributors write with passion and insight: each essay centers on a different theme. A book like this is extremely rare; you won’t come across many like it through the usual marketing channels of the publishing world. So, now that you’ve found it, place your order. Your life will be the richer for it.”  --- Greg Wolfe, Editor of Image Journal