Get ‘Mesmerized’ with Monroeville art exhibit

Many of the world’s most enduring works of art capture aspects of the human form.

But it took North Versailles artist Norma Rowley a while to proceed in that direction.

“I was always intimidated to draw or paint people. I don’t know why,” she said, although it may have had something to do with potential reactions from subjects. “So I started just playing around doing children.”

One such effort was “Mesmerized,” a colored-pencil drawing of a dark-eyed girl framing her face with her hands. At the 2022 Murrysville Women’s Club Art Show, the portrait earned Rowley the People’s Choice award and her first-ever Best in Show.

“Mesmerized” is among the works on display for Rowley’s exhibit, which runs throughout August, in the Elaine Biondi Gallery Space at Monroeville Public Library.

Interspersed with people portraits are her primarily photographic depictions of animals, with the Pittsburgh Zoo a favorite spot for capturing images.

“I’ll take the picture and then make it look like it’s not in the zoo,” she said, with the magic of photo editing software placing the likes of leopards, flamingos and meerkats against intriguingly abstract backgrounds.

She often includes another element.

“I collect sayings and quotations, and sometimes I’ll have a photograph that suits a quotation,” Rowley said. “And I’ll put them together.”

For example, an image of an ambling pachyderm is accompanied by a Buddhist saying: “If you cannot find a good companion to walk with, walk alone, like an elephant. It is better to be alone than to be with someone who will hinder your progress.”

And a photo of a giraffe cropped to emphasize its most prominent feature carries the aphorism:

“Never be afraid to stick your neck out for what you believe.”

Having grown up on a small North Versailles farm, Rowley developed a natural affinity for animals and honed her creativity by studying at the Art Institute of Pittsburgh.

“But that was not to be my career path. I ended up in engineering for 45 years,” she said. “I started out as a detailer and then I was a bridge designer, working on most of the bridges in Pittsburgh over my career.”

Her artistic aptitude paid off when she took a summer job with Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, before the advent of computer-aided drafting.

“They discovered that I was very good at drawing things freehand, and so they offered me a permanent job,” Rowley said.

Eventually, she switched to working with private consulting firms, charged with a variety of tasks.

“I had to do a lot of graphic design and sometimes manipulating photographs for advertising. So that got me involved with the Photoshop end of it,” she recalled. “They came up and handed me a manual and said, ‘This is the program we’re going to use. Read the book.’ So I had to teach myself.”

Rowley began entering her artwork in exhibits in 2010, a couple of years before she retired. She had a piece displayed previously in the Monroeville library as part of an East Suburban Artists League show, and her work was featured at Murrysville Community Library.

And as for deciding to draw and paint people, she apparently made the right call.

“I just did several commissions of children’s portraits, two that are of little boys whose family lives in London, actually,” she said. “They just had a third child, and I’m going to be doing his portrait, too.”