Today we’d like to introduce you to Chase Rowan.
Hi Chase, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
Yes of course! I started my journey to get to where I am today in a way that I feel like a lot of people who grew up in my generation started, by growing up around tools that we use every day.
I was always interested in creative tasks and projects when I was younger… drawing, painting, arts and crafts, making sets out of action figures or toys, and staging them to look a certain way. As I got older that interest was refined and got formed into something that looked a little bit more structured and specific. I stopped doing arts and crafts and playing with toys and got really into sketching and drawing. I stuck with that for a few years but never really took it seriously as something that I wanted to do for a long time it was more of just a hobby that scratched a creative itch for me. I’ll always have a special place in my heart for illustrators and people who draw because I understand how meticulous and detail-oriented drawing can be but it’s definitely proven to be something that’s not for me nowadays.
Over time, I slowed down on drawing and moved out of Texas up to Colorado and then eventually up to a small town in Nebraska.
It was at this point that I really started becoming the artist that I am today. moving from Texas to Colorado was a huge shift in my life especially as a teenager. I only lived in Colorado for about two years so it was right about the time that I was beginning to get comfortable with my new life when I moved to a very small town in Nebraska. Moving from the DFW metroplex to a small town in Nebraska within a matter of two years was a huge culture shock and I became very depressed and unhappy with my circumstances. It was at this time that I started getting into photography and bought one of those entry-level Canon DSLR camera box sets you can find at pretty much any Walmart or Target electronics section and started teaching myself how to use it in my small bedroom. I have a vivid memory of opening the box and throwing away the manual because I thought it would be more entertaining if I could figure out how to take quality photographs with no knowledge of how to use a camera.
After about a year of learning how to use a camera and convincing one or two friends that I had made in Nebraska to participate in some conceptual photoshoots, I noticed that I was gravitating towards fashion editorial or abstract concepts in photography. I knew absolutely nothing about the fashion industry and had no knowledge of what was cool and what wasn’t in terms of clothing and style. With this realization, I began researching everything from streetwear brands e-commerce websites to avant-garde runway fashion shows on the Internet any chance I could get. This led to me quickly developing a taste for what I liked and felt was a reliable foundation to build off of in terms of understanding and grasping fashion, art, and interpretive mediums.
After living in Nebraska for a couple of years I moved back to Texas and started going to a Christian college in Southlake about 25 minutes outside of Dallas. After attending school there for about a year and a half I realized that I was passionate about the arts and pursuing a career in that industry and began working towards that. I also started taking myself seriously as an artist at that point which was very intimidating because it’s never easy to put a label like that on yourself. However, in light of my own personal experience, I think it’s important to take yourself seriously right off the bat no matter what industry you’re stepping into. Others will not take your work or your word seriously if you don’t take yourself seriously first.
After having this realization about my passion and career choice, I began shooting for close friends, a few bands, and dabbling in graphic design work. I was convinced that photography and graphic design were going to be my strong suits and primary focus for the rest of my life because I was so embedded in that style of client work but shortly after getting into a solid stride of freelance work that consisted of these two things I realized that my real passion was physical, tangible art.
In 2019 I sold all of my camera gear and began taking pictures that I had hanging around my apartment off of the walls and whitewashing them with thick primer to create fresh blank canvases because I couldn’t afford new canvases and art materials. Now looking back on that season, I think it was also because I couldn’t control my creative impulses and I would have to act on every idea as soon as I had it haha. After doing this for about 8 months I graduated to purchasing actual canvases and began refining my style until I felt comfortable with it. All while maintaining my interest in fashion and physical design.
Fast forward to present day… I’m now focusing mainly on large-scale work or multidisciplinary installation pieces that often combine raw material, industrial elements, and modern concepts. I like to think that most of my work fits into an ecosystem where all of the pieces exist in the same world but pull inspiration heavily from fashion and interior design. I was also blessed with the opportunity to have some of my work from the past year displayed in my first public exhibition here in downtown Dallas this past fall in a solo show.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Truthfully it has been easy! Haha – Which might sound funny but I’ve learned from experience that consistency and respect for the integrity of your craft is what matters the most, not quantity or how much attention your work gets. As long as I’m focused on the integrity and purpose of what I’m creating then everything seems to fall into place. I’m on God’s timing not mine.
Every artist struggles with comparison and doubt within their own work. But reminding yourself why you’re doing it always seems to flush those negative emotions out.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I work mostly within the boundaries of conceptual art but I don’t limit myself to that at all. I think I’m too eager to try new things to say that I’m just a painter or just a photographer… which is why I lean more on the “artist” title because it covers all mediums and forms.
I’m not really sure I’m *known* for anything quite yet. I feel like being known for something so early on in my artistic career would almost be a con instead of a pro. I’m still figuring everything out and I hope I never reach a point where I can say that I have figured it all out. I think the self-awareness in that is what sets me apart from a lot of other artists. I value humility and I think it’s important now more than ever in our modern culture to know when to be humble and when to celebrate something. There’s a huge difference in celebrating a victory and celebrating yourself.
What does success mean to you?
I’m still learning how to define success. I’m a very optimistic person by nature so I usually consider any real effort at all a success because putting yourself out there and trying something is hard. But as optimistic as I am, I’m also very critical and struggle with perfectionism. Maybe success is not understanding what success really is but still striving for it.
Contact Info:
- Email: chasecrowan@gmail.com
- Website: https://chase-rowan.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chaserowan/
