UpDate - Vol. 12, No. 8, Page 4                        
October 22, 1992                                       
Art professor's works in several area exhibits         
                                                       
     Surrealist artist and University professor Charles Rowe will 
exhibit selected works at the Hercules Inc. Science Fair during the
week of Oct. 26, in the Hercules Plaza.                      
     The three works of art to be displayed at the science fair
include "The Infinite Voyage," an oil on canvas, which is also part of
the NASA Museum National Collection in Cape Canaveral, and two large
graphite drawings on paper, "Moon Shoes" and "Other Worlds...."
     Rowe also will do drawings of astronaut Janice Voss, the science
fair guest of honor. The drawings will be published later in 
conjunction with the artist's other works.                   
     Rowe recently returned from Montana, his birthplace, where he
participated in an exhibition at the C.M. Russell Museum in Great 
Falls, where he displayed 41 works. Rowe's portion of the exhibit,
entitled "Pasajes- Passages," was dedicated to his nephew, Bradford
John Baker, who died earlier this year. Rowe said Baker was "a writer
and photographer, and one who appreciated all that was beauty."
     "I respond to a number of things that happen within societies," 
Rowe said of his art. A touch of Spanish culture can be found in some
of his works as a result of time he spent in Spain. While there, he
bgan to carry sketchbooks for his drawings, as he found he previously
had sketched on napkins, coasters or whatever was handy      
     Since he teaches five courses and also is involved in   
departmental committee work, he devotes his limited time to his art by
using mornings to draw in his sketchbooks. The paintings sometimes
evolve directly from the drawings, but occasionally they are 
completely altered from the sketches.                        
     Rowe said he is a "metaphysical and surrealistic artist,"
although many labels have been used to describe his style.   
     His friend and colleague of 30 years, Julio Alejandro da Cunha,
art professor emeritus, best describes Rowe's artwork.       
     "As poet and artist," da Cunha said, "his visual statements have
led him through the arduous road that calls, on the one hand, for 
superb and painstaking craftsmanship, but at that one in which this
virtuosity jointly becomes the tool to explore the depths of his soul
and his mind.... The spirit exhibited in Rowe's compositions attracts
the viewer through a rich mesh of whimsical images. They demand though
that one should be at least minimally acquainted with metaphysical
subtleties in order to appreciate what might at first appear a forced
or senseless paradox."                                       
     Rowe calls himself an "observer who digests what he sees and then
manifests it on canvas or paper." He thinks up his own images which he
said, "requires more internal decision-making." He gets inspiration
from wherever he is, as he is able to adapt to any situation.
     During a mini, research-sabbatical leave in the spring of 1992,
Rowe worked to complete and create paintings for future exhibits. He
said "it is important to stay active as a creative person to be able
to bring new ideas into teaching. This evokes a vibrancy in dealing
with students and their ideas."                              
     Rowe is currently making arrangements to exhibit "The Infinite
Voyage" and two paintings from the United States Air Force National
Collection in Washington, D.C., in the upcoming annual faculty
exhibition, opening Nov. 2 at the University Gallery in Old College.
He will participate in a one-person exhibition, beginning Dec. 2, at
West Chester University's McKinney Art Gallery.              
     Rowe, a University professor since 1964, teaches drawing,
painting and illustration and also heads the illustration area in the
department. He has received numerous awards, fellowships and grants
and has participated in solo and group shows across the United States
and in Spain and France. He is represented in permanent collections
that can be found from California to Austria.                
     He is also preparing a 9' x 15' reproduction of his painting "The
Source," a work full of positive images that represent rejuvenation.
As Rowe said, "mankind constantly recycles itself." It will be
dedicated at the State Justice Building in Helena, Mont., in the fall
of 1993.                                                     
                                        -Gretchen Bittner