PRINCETON, W.Va. (AP) — Chase Bowman found a love for art at the young age of just five years old when he entered a coloring contest and won it.
Bowman is a Mercer County native who is originally from Matoaka and a graduate from the 1998 class at Princeton Senior High School.
He is now an Associate Professor at Concord University (CU) for art, and he is going into his eighth year teaching there for this academic year.
“I really enjoy the job,” said Bowman. “It gives me a social outlet because I get to talk to people; otherwise, I would just be in the studio all day.”
Bowman works in the art studio eight to 10 hours a day because he does not only teach but also sells and shows his pieces at art galleries around the country.
“Right now, I have pieces in two galleries,” he said. “There are some at the Live In Gallery in Brooklyn, New York and some at the Bloomfield Richwood Gallery in Richwood, West Virginia.’
The Richwood gallery actually opened Bowman’s showing on August 25.
Bowman’s art styles is more traditional in supplies and technique which is what he thinks makes his work unique. He specializes in pen and ink drawing and watercolors and illustrations.
While Bowman loves doing art, showing it, and teaching it, he did not always see art as something he could do full time.
“I’ve always done art, but I’d never though of art as a professional practice until I was about 18, and that’s really because for better or worse, young artists aren’t really strongly encouraged to pursue art as a career,” Bowman explained.
Bowman says a lot of the discouragement around the art field stems from the fact that many people believe there is not much money to be made in the practice, but Bowman said that is just not true at all.
He...
