THE ART OF JOE BOWLER

American painter and illustrator Joe Bowler and his creations

- Leif Peng

If some people seem to have had the good luck to be natural born artists, Joe Bowler would have certainly qualified as one of them. But there’s an old saying: “Fortune favors the bold.” In other words, yes, some guys seem to have all the luck—but chances are they also aren’t afraid to make their own. As Joe recalled, “I was drawing at three... for some reason I drew bicycles... with all the wheels and the spokes and pedals. I was always the ‘artist’ in the school. My ability wasn’t really creative; rather, I had the ability to copy something—anything. My teacher in 2nd or 3rd grade would put a picture of a dog or something on the wall and say ‘draw the dog.’ Well, I drew THAT particular dog! I don’t know if it was eye-hand coordination or what.”

Luckily for Joe, his parents, if not a little concerned about his future career prospects, were very supportive and encouraging of their son’s artistic abilities. Happily, he managed to assuage those concerns. “I guess it was in junior year,” he recalled, “we had a kind of ‘Career Day’ thing and they had printed up a list of all these professions and their annual salaries. And at the top of the list, above lawyer and doctor and businessman... was illustrator! ‘One hundred thousand dollars’ it said. Of course this was 1943–’44 or so and they were talking about a handful of the best illustrators in the business making that kind of money. Rockwell and a few others. Well, I ran all the way home and showed my parents the list and said, ‘See? I told you.’ And they sort of sighed a great sigh of relief. Because we didn’t have any money at all—especially for college.”