Rowan Draper: Fears and Artwork

by Rowan Draper

When I start out I’m always just creating for fun, following my intuition. Only after the piece is finished do I begin to find meaning in my artwork, whether it was there from the beginning or was created afterward to fit the piece, I can’t say.

I believe that for the most part my artwork is created from my own personal fears; fear of being alone, of being lost, both physically and emotionally, of not having a voice in a crowded, oversaturated world. Fear of the apocalypse. I take these fears and convert them into something productive, something positive. But that’s just my current interpretation, in a year these same pieces could represent the things I love in life. That’s why artwork, in any medium, is so fascinating, it is a living, breathing thing brought to life by our ever-changing perception of it.

Rowan Draper is an emerging artist born in Montreal, raised in the Laurentian region of Quebec. His work consists of dystopian collages and spray-paint infused cartoons, inspired by visual artists Gary Panter, Salvador Dali, and Hieronymus Bosch.

Find more from Rowan on Instagram, @rowd.art

See this article and more in our issue two print release!