Neighbor Artist #19: Ellen McGowan

Great-Grandmother Sculptor Brings One-Person Show to Greeneville

Currently, Greeneville has the privilege of experiencing first hand the sculptural works of one of Tennessee’s best known artists. Because sculpture is grouped among the “fine arts” , and has been linked over the centuries to such legendary figures as Phidias in classical Greece, Michelangelo in the Renaissance, and Rodin in more recent times, the medium can seem too lofty for the average person. But sculpture is brought down to earth and in touch with ordinary folks through the hands of Ellen McGowan. This talented and feisty West Tennessean has for years been a favorite of visitors to James-Ben: Art Center, both in Franklin and Greeneville. The gallery has now realized a goal that has been many months in planning, the mounting of a one-person show featuring the sculpture of Ellen McGowan, which will continue through the month of May. Since Greeneville has been introduced to a wider variety of her work, it seemed good to devote this column to introducing her as an artist/neighbor.
A native of Memphis, Ellen McGowan recently returned to her home county after years of living in Middle Tennessee. The daughter of an Englishman who came to this country to study medicine and a mother who was a musician, Ellen had focused on art before even starting school. “My mother had an artist friend, and one day she was painting a picture for me,” she remembers. “I tried to draw a tricycle in the picture. I couldn’t do it, so I kept practicing and was determined to get it right. I was probably 5 years old, but I knew then that I wanted to be an artist.” Growing up in Chicago after her family relocated gave Ellen the chance as a child to study at one of America’s great art centers, the Art Institute. College brought her back to Tennessee, where she would receive both undergraduate and graduate degrees in Fine Art. She married her husband Robert, a botanist, just before his departure for service in World War II. Upon his return, they turned their attention to family and careers. Ellen completed her college work after her children were born. Her studies included the Memphis College of Art. “I taught art and music while my husband taught botany. I thought to myself, I am not going to teach the rest of my life,” she recalls. “I bought a potters wheel and a kiln. I made pots, and I found I liked putting faces and different things on them.” From these elements, a turn in the direction of sculpture seemed natural for Ellen. “I began working sculpturally in the late 1960’s, creating small figures in clay that I dug locally and fired in a salt kiln I built myself.” Further studies included valuable time spent with master sculptor Bruno Lucchesi. Because she was more interested in creating figures of “everyday people doing everyday things”, the pieces created at the beginning of her career in sculpture were what she calls “genre pieces”. Exhibited singly or in groupings, her works won numerous awards and led to commissions from patrons including some prominent names. She created all of the original pieces of the Alex Haley collection, depicting the Pulitzer prize-winning author’s childhood. “He was an extraordinary man,” she says. “He would tell stories of his childhood and I would sculpt the stories into the originals for the collectibles to be cast from.” Lee Trevino and Bette Midler would also commission the creation of sculpture to capture memories. Both former governor Ned Ray McWherter and long-time lieutenant-governor John Wilder have entrusted treasured moments to Ellen’s skillful hands, as has entertainer Tom T. Hall.
In the 1990’s Ellen enlarged her efforts to create larger works in concrete and bronze as public display pieces and for commercial production of garden sculptures. She is still the primary designer for Mid-South Ornamental Concrete Company. Her larger works now grace the facilities of such museums as those of Christian Brothers University in Memphis, the West Tennessee Regional Art Center, and the Alex Haley Museum in Henning, as well as more emotional sites such as the Memorial Garden at the Lewis County Hospital in Hohenwald, Agape Family Services in Memphis, and the Perry County Time Capsule at the Bicentennial Capital Mall in Nashville. Corporate commissions for Ellen have come from such entities as BellSouth, Nashville Metropolitan Airport, and First American Bank. Among the celebrity patrons mentioned earlier, she has not limited herself to her smaller scale works but has also brought forth life-size portrait bronzes, such as that of Lee Trevino’s daughter, Olivia. There is a continuing source of satisfaction for Ellen from her concrete garden sculptures, which reside in locations all over the country. “My great-granddaughter told me the other day she saw one of my ‘little girls’ in a yard on her way to school,” she says. But the smaller, personality-rich clay figures which she started making back in the 1960’s still are highest in her affection. “As I now enter my eighties, I have recently resumed concentration on my more personal work. I am treating myself to all ‘genre pieces’ in my old age since that’s what I love to do.” Unable to resist the charms and foibles of her fellow humans, she carries a sketch pad with her and quite often captures delightful moments of spontaneity. One piece catches an affectionate interlude between an elderly couple and is titled “Never Too Old to Flirt”. “My work is personal,” Ellen says. “All my work has to be personal. I don’t want a piece to look like a computerized image.”
It is Ellen McGowan’s ‘genre pieces’ which Greene Countians can enjoy at James-Ben: Studio and Gallery Art Center. “I’ve known Ellen since I first moved my jewelry studio to Franklin, more than twenty-five years ago,” says James-Ben Stockton. “She and I have both been fortunate enough to have careers in art and have shared quite a few laughs about the twists and turns along the way.” It is the family focus of Ellen McGowan’s work that will appeal to Northeast Tennesseans. Her return to the style of sculpture that began her career is mirrored by her return to her native Shelby County and her family, which now consists of four generations. “My great-granddaughter, Jordan, wants to save the earth,” she says. “She is taking after my husband.” Through the month of May, and throughout the year, the work of Ellen McGowan is available at James-Ben: Studio and Gallery Art Center.