My name is Rowan Brothers. I’ve always been a very creative person and I’m glad to have this blog where I can share my art. I’ve dabbled in acrylic painting, drawing, design, textile arts, photography, and fashion in the past. Art doesn’t exactly run in the family, but my aunt and great-grandmother are both accomplished artists. My great-grandmother, Virginia West Martin was a celebrated weaver and textile artist.

I am hoping to become an art teacher in the near future since I have a knack for over-explaining everything that I do. I’m currently majoring in American Sign Language with the goal of teaching art at the Atlanta Area School for the Deaf. I hope to inspire my students the same way that my high school art teacher, Tommy Branch, did for me.

My art style takes inspiration from multiple sources, including the art of Margaret Keane, Vincent Van Gogh, Keith Haring, Alex Pardee, and the animation of the film Spiderman: Into the Spider-Verse. I love Keane’s work for the emotion she always puts into the eyes of her subjects, Van Gogh for his uniquely beautiful style, Haring for the chaotic nature of many of his works and the way he was an activist through his art, Pardee because of his creepy style, and Into the Spider-Verse because of the unique mix of styles. I generally paint portraits and try to include surrealist aspects, including exaggerated and creepy features all inspired by these artists.

I take inspiration from every direction. One of my paintings which was published in a collection of student artwork was inspired by the music video for Madonna’s “Like a Prayer” and specifically the backlash that the video faced for depicting Jesus as a black man. A painting that I did of Malala Yousafzai for an art class was inspired by the Taliban attempting to take control again and my Muslim classmates.

Other pieces of art have been inspired by simple things like my desire to paint a chicken or excitement over a scene from a TV show.

The picture at the top of this page is of the wall just above my bed. I like to cover the wall with pictures of actors and musicians I like, art that I think is nice, and random pictures that I like looking at. The images include Bruce Springsteen, Jobu Topaki, Draculaura, Carrie Fisher, album covers, official art for book characters, art by my friends, quotes that I like, etc. I think these pictures represent me in a small way and I think these pictures being sitting just above my bed is another representation of myself.