What to do when you’re a 4-year-old and your artistic muse is whispering in your ear, stirring your heart with a passion you never knew existed? 

For Rah Lowry, he listened.

The Brooklyn, N.Y., transplant, now living in Columbus, not only followed his passion, but was also encouraged to do so by his grandmother. 

“Think about how wonderful. Me with a fist full of crayons. I’m 4 years old, and my grandma allowed me to draw on the walls,” said Lowry, smiling at the memory. “That’s a special kind of freedom to learn, explore, experiment and dream. 

“She still has the first thing I drew back then. For the longest time, it occupied a place of honor, magnetized to the fridge. It gave her such genuine pleasure. I remember how that made me feel. I knew I was on to something. Growing up in New York, I was exposed to, well, everything. It being a mecca for everything, everyone and art of all kind everywhere. For me, it wasn’t sensory overload. I was like a sponge, still am.

“By the time I was 16, I was creating tattoos and graffiti art. Can you imagine? I certainly did. I even attended the Art Institute of Ft. Lauderdale, but with only siz months left before I graduated, the classes closed. Life is like that with the unexpected. I got into graphic art and animation while there. But I want it known — I’m a self-taught artist.”

Lowry met his wife, Brie, in Atlanta. They have two children: Rah, 2, and Xen, 8 months. The couple moved to Columbus in 2021.

“When I was around 21, I got into perfecting my coloring. I’ve always wanted to take a color and blend it into something else, play around and see what I got,” said Lowry as he intensely studied the sculpture he’d been working on. 

He pauses, staring out a window at his backyard and sighs. The family’s enormous, gentle giant of a dog Oz saunters over and inspects Lowry’s animation work on a laptop, while leaning his entire 120 pounds against him. It draws Lowry back from wherever his memories had taken him.

“And that’s why I didn’t want to paint,” said Lowry, picking up a Copic Marker and blending a particular green on a screen bearing one of his colorful illustrations. “Say you make paint and you mess it up, you’re left at zero. If I blend a marker, I can just keep going. It makes life a little easier.”

Lowry’s artistic groove reflects his journey from that young boy to the father of two he is today. He is a sculptor, an animator and graphic artist who also has the ability to create his artistic visions on a computer. 

“My family and my art give me peace. It’s a sense of soul and a sense of atmosphere that I thrive in, and that radiates to those who experience my work. I need to feel that coming back to me everyday because that gets me going in the morning.”

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Photo essay: Columbus-based artist Rah Lowry

by Vickie King, Mississippi Today
February 18, 2023

<h1>Photo essay: Columbus-based artist Rah Lowry</h1> <p class="byline">by Vickie King, Mississippi Today <br />February 18, 2023</p> <p>What to do when you're a 4-year-old and your artistic muse is whispering in your ear, stirring your heart with a passion you never knew existed?&nbsp;</p> <p>For Rah Lowry, he listened.</p> <p>The Brooklyn, N.Y., transplant, now living in Columbus, not only followed his passion, but was also encouraged to do so by his grandmother.&nbsp;</p> <p>"Think about how wonderful. Me with a fist full of crayons. I'm 4 years old, and my grandma allowed me to draw on the walls," said Lowry, smiling at the memory. "That's a special kind of freedom to learn, explore, experiment and dream.&nbsp;</p> <p>"She still has the first thing I drew back then. For the longest time, it occupied a place of honor, magnetized to the fridge. It gave her such genuine pleasure. I remember how that made me feel. I knew I was on to something. Growing up in New York, I was exposed to, well, everything. It being a mecca for everything, everyone and art of all kind everywhere. For me, it wasn't sensory overload. I was like a sponge, still am.</p> <p>"By the time I was 16, I was creating tattoos and graffiti art. Can you imagine? I certainly did. I even attended the Art Institute of Ft. Lauderdale, but with only siz months left before I graduated, the classes closed. Life is like that with the unexpected. I got into graphic art and animation while there. But I want it known — I'm a self-taught artist."</p> <p>Lowry met his wife, Brie, in Atlanta. They have two children: Rah, 2, and Xen, 8 months. The couple moved to Columbus in 2021.</p> <p>"When I was around 21, I got into perfecting my coloring. I've always wanted to take a color and blend it into something else, play around and see what I got," said Lowry as he intensely studied the sculpture he'd been working on.&nbsp;</p> <p>He pauses, staring out a window at his backyard and sighs. The family's enormous, gentle giant of a dog Oz saunters over and inspects Lowry's animation work on a laptop, while&nbsp;leaning his entire 120 pounds against him. It draws Lowry back from wherever his memories had taken him.</p> <p>"And that's why I didn't want to paint," said Lowry, picking up a Copic Marker and blending a particular green on a screen bearing one of his colorful illustrations. "Say you make paint and you mess it up, you're left at zero. If I blend a marker, I can just keep going. It makes life a little easier."</p> <p>Lowry's artistic groove reflects his journey from that young boy to the father of two he is today.&nbsp;He is a sculptor, an animator and graphic artist who also has the ability to create his artistic visions on a computer.&nbsp;</p> <p>"My family and my art give me peace. It's a sense of soul and a sense of atmosphere that I thrive in, and that radiates to those who experience my work. I need to feel that coming back to me everyday because that gets me going in the morning."</p> <div class="wp-block-jetpack-slideshow aligncenter" data-effect="slide"> <div class="wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_container swiper-container"> <ul class="wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_swiper-wrapper swiper-wrapper"> <li class="wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_slide swiper-slide"> <figure><img alt="" class="wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_image wp-image-1090089" data-id="1090089" src="https://cdn.mississippitoday.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/06130349/Rah-Lowry1.jpg" /></figure> </li> <li class="wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_slide swiper-slide"> <figure><img alt="" class="wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_image wp-image-1090088" data-id="1090088" src="https://cdn.mississippitoday.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/06130352/Rah-Lowry2.jpg" /></figure> </li> <li class="wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_slide swiper-slide"> <figure><img alt="" class="wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_image wp-image-1090087" data-id="1090087" src="https://cdn.mississippitoday.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/06130355/Rah-Lowry3.jpg" /></figure> </li> <li class="wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_slide swiper-slide"> <figure><img alt="" class="wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_image wp-image-1090086" data-id="1090086" src="https://cdn.mississippitoday.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/06130358/Rah-Lowry4.jpg" /></figure> </li> <li class="wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_slide swiper-slide"> <figure><img alt="" class="wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_image wp-image-1090085" data-id="1090085" src="https://cdn.mississippitoday.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/06130401/Rah-Lowry5.jpg" /></figure> </li> <li class="wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_slide swiper-slide"> <figure><img alt="" class="wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_image wp-image-1090084" data-id="1090084" src="https://cdn.mississippitoday.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/06130404/Rah-Lowry6.jpg" /></figure> </li> <li class="wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_slide swiper-slide"> <figure><img alt="" class="wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_image wp-image-1090083" data-id="1090083" src="https://cdn.mississippitoday.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/06130406/Rah-Lowry7.jpg" /></figure> </li> <li class="wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_slide swiper-slide"> <figure><img alt="" class="wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_image wp-image-1090082" data-id="1090082" src="https://cdn.mississippitoday.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/06130409/Rah-Lowry8.jpg" /></figure> </li> <li class="wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_slide swiper-slide"> <figure><img alt="" class="wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_image wp-image-1090081" data-id="1090081" src="https://cdn.mississippitoday.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/06130412/Rah-Lowry9.jpg" /></figure> </li> <li class="wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_slide swiper-slide"> <figure><img alt="" class="wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_image wp-image-1090080" data-id="1090080" src="https://cdn.mississippitoday.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/06130416/Rah-Lowry10.jpg" /></figure> </li> <li class="wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_slide swiper-slide"> <figure><img alt="" class="wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_image wp-image-1090079" data-id="1090079" src="https://cdn.mississippitoday.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/06130419/Rah-Lowry11.jpg" /></figure> </li> </ul> <p><a class="wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_button-prev swiper-button-prev swiper-button-white" role="button"></a><a class="wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_button-next swiper-button-next swiper-button-white" role="button"></a><a aria-label="Pause Slideshow" class="wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_button-pause" role="button"></a></p> <div class="wp-block-jetpack-slideshow_pagination swiper-pagination swiper-pagination-white"></div> </div> </div> <div class="wp-block-buttons"> <div class="wp-block-button"><a class="wp-block-button__link has-primary-background-color has-background wp-element-button" href="https://mississippitoday.org/black-businesses/">More Black-owned Businesses</a></div> </p></div> <hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity is-style-wide" /> <div class="wp-block-group has-light-gray-background-color has-background"> <h4 id="h-help-us-feature-black-businesses-in-mississippi"><mark class="has-inline-color has-primary-color">Help us feature Black businesses in Mississippi:</mark></h4> <p>(function (c, i, t, y, z, e, n, x) { x = c.createElement(y), n = c.getElementsByTagName(y)[0]; 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