I wrote about the Artist and Sailor Reid Stowe in 2019 when he had a show in Chelsea that I had helped do publicity for along with the opening night party and VIP event. As I wrote at the time, I've known Reid for at his point at least 15 years, and probably more. I used to do alot of sailing in New York Harbor, and Reid was a part of that world. Being on wooden ships is a beautiful experience, and his Schooner the Anne is a beautiful ship. After his show in Chelsea, he went back to his home in North Carolina for a while, and then just the other day he sent me a text with a photograph and the simple message that he and his crew had anchored at the Statue of Liberty. He's back in New York for a show in Chelsea again, and the Anne is with him this time.
The project he's been working on is one that I'd heard a bit about when he was here in 2019. At that time he'd invited a small group of us to a show at the Planetarium that took us on a visual journey of the places where he'd traveled on his round the world trip that he'd been planning for when I'd first met him sometime around 2003. The project seeks to help outline a way that astronauts can learn through sailing how to prepare for a flight to Mars, and the artwork he has created along with his ocean voyage experience are part of that experience.
Reid's work is always so layered and full of textures. It's like nothing else that I've seen and it has a very unique voice of the Artist that comes through and connects the pieces though at times they are so completely different in their size and shape, the colors he is using and the layers of mixed media, including at times sail cloth, parts of his ships, ropes, writing, notes, photographs and other pieces of found objects that have deep meaning to him in the course of his life and the creation of his paintings. The expression "Every picture tells a story" could be enlarged for Reid to say that every picture tells many stories. As we look at the work we go on a journey ourselves, one that reflects from his reflections and brings us to a new place of being.
The Mars Analogs as his new project is called is one for the ages. The pieces he has created are at times layered with work from previous years and overpainting that brings to life his history as well as his life today. When we look into the world he has created, whether we are sitting aboard the Anne or standing in a gallery contemplating, we will find that we are transported, sometimes in a moment, to a place in another galaxy filled with the light of many stars.
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