Today we’d like to introduce you to Bowen Ross.
Hi Bowen, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
My creative journey started early on, in various ways, but I’d say it took hold in earnest when I began my professional life as an advertising creative. Over the past 30-plus years, I’ve essentially had three overlapping and intermingling careers—as an art director/designer, commercial photographer, and copywriter.
Within this environment, I was surrounded by countless forms of creativity and an extraordinary concentration of talent. It was my ticket to travel the world and be exposed to so many interesting places, people, and experiences. I found myself inspired and in awe almost daily. There’s a real magic that happens when something is alchemized out of an idea in your head. And I found the process infectious.
I love coming up with ideas, and I love making things, so it was a natural fit. My creative curiosities and ambitions tended to bounce around, and I believe this cross-pollination and deep immersion shaped my eye, sharpened my critical thinking, and honed my craft and discipline.
Alongside my commercial work, I began pursuing art for myself. This gave me a real sense of creative freedom that had been missing. Over time, that practice grew and has now become my primary focus.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Smooth? Not entirely. The self-doubt is real, as is the financial uncertainty that comes with transitioning from a long career into something a bit more unpredictable. I’m familiar with switching gears creatively, and there’s always something exciting about stepping into the unknown and seeing the amazing places it can take you.
Coming from advertising, I naturally looked at things through a commercial lens and wondered where my art might fit in this context. But as the work evolved, it became increasingly clear that it wasn’t meant to solve marketing problems. It was something much more personal. Developing a more substantial body of work helped me see where it might naturally find its place.
There’s also the challenge of turning an art practice into a full-on career. Making the work is one component; putting it into the world, finding an audience, and navigating everything that comes with that is another. I’m still figuring some of that out as I go, but so far, I’m finding real success in the process. I’ve been juried into several top shows and received two Best in Show honors, which has been validating.
I believe the journey has been about learning to trust the work, allowing it to develop on its own terms, and recognizing its natural place as it emerges. The coolest part has been seeing a personal creative pursuit grow into a practice that has found an audience and continues to open new portals. For all the unknowns, the compulsion to keep making art is simply too strong. Ultimately, where the work lives matters less than the fact that it gets made.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I create densely layered, psychologically driven work that sits somewhere between surrealism, abstraction, and visual storytelling. I form ideas through sketches and then translate the work in Adobe Illustrator, building intricate vector compositions that are produced as fine art prints.
My work leans maximalist and highly detailed, with figures, faces, symbols, patterns, and forms woven together into interconnected worlds. I’m interested in the search for identity and belonging, the interplay between perception and reality, a tension between chaos and control, and the notion that everything is connected. Through it all, there is humor and whimsy. I take my practice seriously, but the subject matter—sometimes not so much.
My images don’t reveal themselves all at once; they’re meant to unfold over time. My process is slow, and making the work requires me to slow down, be present, and exercise patience. In that sense, studio time becomes a form of meditation. My hope is that some of that same energy transfers to the viewer—that they slow down, spend time with the work, and discover things for themselves.
The process begins with sketches, idea fragments, and purging the detritus from my head. I often have a sense of where I’m taking any given work, but discovery is a big part of what excites me. One idea leads to another, forms begin interacting with other forms, and the work grows and changes as I’m making it. Working digitally gives me the freedom to build, rearrange, layer, and deconstruct. The technology is simply the vehicle; the process is about drawing, experimenting, uncovering, and responding to what’s happening in front of me.
I believe what sets my work apart is less any one thing than the convergence of everything that shapes it. My influences range from surrealism, psychedelic art, poster art, graphic design, Art Deco, and Art Nouveau to the natural world, the mechanical world, good music, things well made, and countless other things that find their way in. They mash up and evolve into a visual language that feels distinctly my own. I create the work digitally, but I don’t think much about the distinction between digital and traditional media. It’s simply the means I use to make the work.
What I’m most proud of is having built an art practice from essentially nothing more than a sense of purpose and a desire to make the work. Bringing all the elements together—developing a body of work and ultimately putting it out into the world—has been a monumental undertaking and incredibly satisfying. After spending much of my professional life creating for other purposes, there’s something meaningful and timeless about having built something that exists entirely on its own terms.
What matters most to you? Why?
This is a big question and can be unpacked in so many ways. One thing I strive for, and something that has become increasingly important to me, is a sense of peace. Not necessarily an absence of difficulty or uncertainty, but a contentment with where I am in this life’s journey, professionally and personally—how I spend my time, the people I surround myself with and their well-being, having the freedom and means to pursue what I want to do, and ultimately finding what truly fulfills me. Making art certainly checks that box, but it goes well beyond that. There are so many ways we find ourselves in states of unrest that I’ve come to value peace more and more.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.bowenrossart.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bowenross_art/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffbowenross/
