Cody Carlowe

In February of 2024, an accident involving a falling bookshelf changed everything. The following months would reveal damage to left and right parietal lobes of my brain. My engineering career was put on pause. In April of 2024, a painting adventure started – 10 cans of spray paint from the hardware store, some scrap cardboard, and a handful of acrylics from an impulse buy at the craft store years prior. What was initially paint splatters and spray paint scribbles on the back porch, grew into a visual diary of my recovery. I began painting. Every. Day. The circles you see in my work are stamps of my learning to look more inward than out, of movement towards balance within myself and with the world around me. But many of them appear broken or incomplete – When you are up close, they are an intentional celebration of the different, the imperfect, and the “work in progress”. And when you step back, they bring the whole piece together; connecting elements and movements, sometimes bridging, sometimes disrupting, and sometimes just offering a familiar place to land. Each is a nod to the beauty and possibility that exists when you stop searching for perfection and start giving in to possibility. As I continue to navigate recovery to the new “normal”, my goal is to make art that tugs at you. On a good day, it makes you think; and on a great day, it makes you feel all the feels. For me, each piece is a new experiment and a testament to finding beauty in the unexpected (as well as many unconventional things from the hardware store).