CCS was honored to showcase 50 individuals and activities during our 50th Anniversary in 2017-2018 to share our rich history. Take a look at the amazing people responsible for making our unconventional College possible!  

Growing up in Santa Barbara, California, Roy Fowler (CCS Art '76) became fascinated by, and built a strong connection with, the ocean. Although Fowler has lived in New York for many years, his California roots are still evident in his artwork. Over the years, the focus of Roy’s paintings have been abstraction in nature and landscape. One of his favorite subjects is the ocean, which is evident in his current gallery exhibition at Fort Gansevoort (a former U.S. Army fort in New York City borough of Manhattan).  Titled New Wave, Fowler’s exhibit features six watercolors, 6 medium sized oil paintings, and four 6’ x 8’ paintings. His exhibit fills all three of the gallery floors at Fort Gansevoort. This exhibit of abstract waves brings the semblance of the ocean to one of New York City’s hottest new galleries within the heart of the revitalized Meatpacking District. Fowler believes color in a painting triggers memory. “Each painting in the show is painted with a different blue pigment to create a variety of experience. I bought different brands of paint to find the brand with the most vibrant color, and used it without mixing it”, explained Fowler. He continued by saying this is important because “color is responsible for creating a painting’s impact.”

Fowler’s exhibit is more than just his paintings. The CCS alumnus explained, “There’s a tradition of artists collaborating to include dance, poetry, and music into gallery exhibitions. The Fort Gansevoort owner, Adam Shopkorn, suggested that we offer the gallery to anyone that I would like to bring in for an event.” To this end, Roy and Adam scheduled a program that runs concurrently with the show. This includes author William Finnegan reading an excerpt of his book, Barbarian Days: A Surfing Life; a benefit for the Montauk Ocean Institute, a staging of a passage of Virginia Woolf’s The Waves; two performances of Rue Surf by dancer Molissa Fenley; poet Bob Holman; and many more. Fowler credits CCS with enabling and pushing him to pursue a career as a professional painter. He believes the most valuable aspect of his CCS education was being able to see, in person, many influential artists. “I enjoyed the diversity of the guest lecturers,” said Fowler. “They included Buckminster Fuller, Robert Irwin, Jacques D’Amboise, Charles Garabedian, and other artists from New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco who taught seminars and gave slideshows and lectures. That made the College really valuable and opened up avenues of creativity for me.”

Upon his graduation from CCS in 1976, Fowler made the decision to move across the country to what was then the center of the art world, New York City. He has lived in the same studio in Tribeca ever since. Fowler attributes this decision to artist Paul Georges, whom he met while Georges was guest lecturing at CCS. “He [Paul Georges] told me about the painting scene in New York and I thought it would be a really interesting place to go,” said Fowler. “You can study artists while you are in school, but you only know them through magazines and books. It was a valuable idea to go meet the actual people and visit their studios.”

I enjoyed the diversity of the guest lecturers. They included Buckminster Fuller, Robert Irwin, Jacques D’Amboise, Charles Garabedian, and other artists from New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco who taught seminars and gave slideshows and lectures. That made the College really valuable and opened up avenues of creativity for me.

Fowler’s love of the outdoors goes well beyond the canvas. As an avid distance runner, he has run two marathons, two 60-kilometer (37.2 mile) races, and one 50-mile race. Most recently, after six months of training, he completed the Pine to Palm 100-mile run in 32 hours. Fowler was the oldest competitor to finish the race, which traversed 20,000 feet of elevation gain through the mountains of Southern Oregon. When asked what drew him to such a challenge, he responded by saying that after he completed the Red Rock 50-mile in Santa Barbara he thought, “I’m on a roll, and it’s now or never, so I may as well try for a hundred [mile run].” He continued by saying “if you do the training, you will have the confidence that you will be able to complete the task.”

Fowler believes his plant-based diet helped him to achieve his physical milestones. “I really credit [the run] on eating a plant-based diet that emphasizes eating mostly fruit,” Fowler described. “I lost weight and felt light on my feet. It gave me the energy and health to run.” While visiting Santa Barbara for his training, Fowler was able to see many of the Central Coast’s beautiful trails and scenery while running up to eight hours a day. “On the weekends, I would run 20-30 miles on Saturday and then another 15-20 on Sunday,” said Fowler. “It was really great to know that I would be up in the mountains for an eight-hour stretch.” Often he would not see another person for many miles and it would just be him and the brilliant landscape. 

His time in CCS, as well as his love for the outdoors, helped accelerate Fowler’s career to the point where it is now. To this day, he is still motivated to share his experience of the outdoors through painting.