Artist Margaret Dowell’s First CSM Exhibition Opens Tomorrow, Highlights our Human Connections and Her Family Farm

Artist and former College of Southern Maryland (CSM) Adjunct Art Professor Dr. Margaret Dowell will return to the La Plata Campus tomorrow, Nov. 4, to share her artistic view of her family's 300-year-old Calvert County farm. Her art exhibition kicks off with Dowell hosting a gallery talk at the Tony Hungerford Memorial Art Gallery in the Fine Arts Building at 2 p.m.

The paintings highlight the connections that Dowell said she feels toward the generations of people who have worked on the farm, her ancestors, local culture and the universe as a whole.  

“We are pleased to have Margaret Dowell exhibiting some of her innovative work in our gallery,” said CSM Associate Dean for Liberal Arts Dr. Stephen Johnson. “She was on the visual arts faculty for years, so having her return as an exhibitor is a special treat. Her work really reflects many of her influences in the area. The humanity and symbolism of her work underscores Southern Maryland and other regional connections. I’m particularly intrigued by her uses of personal models which will be apparent during her presentation November 4th.”  

"The making of art for me is a physical, spiritual, intellectual and psychological process which can be simultaneously humbling and elating,” Dowell shared. “If I have a lofty goal, it would be that the works contribute in some way to the shaping of a more tolerable existence.”  

Dowell said she also emphasized her connections to others by devoting space in her exhibition to highlighting and thanking mentors who have helped her through her career, which include established artists, and a former student.  

“Mentors are important throughout your life,” she said. “I encourage people who are older to get younger mentors.”  

Dowell, who has also worked as an installation artist, sculptor, and pastels artist as well as having a lengthy career as a teacher, sees these paintings as yet another step on her long and varied artist path.  

The Sunderland resident taught in the CSM Art Department at CSM from 2011-2020. During her time at the college, she received an Adjunct Faculty Excellence Award and was selected to present a Provocation Lecture on Addiction and Art. She was recently awarded a Maryland State Arts Council Grant. This is her first show at CSM.  

For more information, visit https://www.csmd.edu/calendar/2022/11/gallery-dowell.html.