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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Sculpting Sensation Spokane’s Dorothy Fowler Adds Another Triumph To Her Resume With A Sculpture Fo The Princess Mother Of Thailand

Dorothy Fowler - sculptor, aviator, wife, grandmother - was in her sculpting studio near Spokane in October when she landed the biggest commission of her life.

The subject: the late Princess Mother of Thailand, mother of two kings and one of the most revered women in that Southeast Asian country.

The Princess Mother had died in July at age 94. Fowler’s mission was to create a life-size bronze likeness, a gift from Boeing to Thai Airlines, which is partially owned by the royal family. It will then be put on permanent display in the Royal Palace compound.

“The Boeing people said, ‘When could you go to Thailand?”’ said Fowler. “I said, ‘Tomorrow!’ Then when I got off the phone I had to say to (husband) Jack, ‘Where’s Thailand?’ I knew approximately, but not exactly.”

She and her husband were flown immediately to the Royal Palace in Bangkok, where she was given a five-day crash course in the personality and accomplishments of the Princess Mother (“a Thai Mother Theresa,” says Fowler). She was also given dozens of photos and videos to work from.

After six hard weeks back home in her studio, the sculpture is finished. When it is unveiled in the Royal Palace in January, it will be the biggest achievement in Fowler’s sculpting career.

Not that she doesn’t already have a few achievements. Her best-known sculpture, “The Strongest Bond,” is on permanent display at the Chicago headquarters of the McDonald’s Corp. as well as outside the Ronald McDonald House in Spokane.

She has some 35 life-size sculptures on display in galleries in Carmel and Palm Desert, Calif., Scottsdale, Ariz., Jackson Hole, Wyo., Cannon Beach, Ore., Portland, Ore., and Joseph, Ore.

Her life-size pieces sell anywhere from $8,000 to $66,000. If you want to commission a life-size sculpture of yourself it will cost $50,000, if she agrees to do it at all (she is picky about accepting portrait commissions).

She is also the creator and donor of the bust of Spokane arts maven Katherine Gellhorn, which sits in the lobby of the Interplayers Ensemble in Spokane.

“So, now I’ve done Her Royal Highness of Thailand, and Her Royal Highness of Spokane,” said Fowler.

This is an impressive sculpting resume, considering that Fowler, 69, did not even begin her sculpting career until about 10 years ago.

Her life’s resume is even more impressive. This is a woman who has raised six children; flown

her private plane (along with her husband) to places as far away as the Bering Sea and Guatemala; been an officer of “The 99s” (the International Women’s Pilots Organization started by Amelia Earhart); and had a hand with her husband in founding the Schweitzer Mountain Resort ski area.

One other thing you should know about Fowler’s life: It’s also a love story. She has been married to Jack Fowler for 30 years, and it would be hard to imagine a closer couple.

Listen to some of the phrases she uses to describe her relationship with her husband:

“My mentor.”

“My teacher.”

“My partner.”

“My life began when I married Jack.”

Jack Fowler retired from his dentistry practice two years ago, and now, in addition to restoring and flying antique airplanes, he is her business manager.

“We’re so close,” said Dorothy. “When he retired, we made a pact that we’d never go anywhere without each other again.”

Fowler was raised in Pacific Grove, Calif. She attended art classes at San Jose State College, but not in sculpture.

“I thought I wanted do interior decorating,” she said. “I really hadn’t found my niche.”

She moved to Spokane in 1949 and had three children by a previous marriage. She was a medical secretary at Sacred Heart Medical Center and a homemaker. Her creative talents were limited to doing craft projects with her kids.

Then she married Jack in 1966 (“each of us with three children, happily blended”). She immediately became interested in airplanes.

“I knew that if I was going to be happily married to this man, I would have to learn how to fly,” she said. “When we were married, we had a wooden propeller underneath our bed.”

She learned to fly, and eventually Jack built Dorothy her own home-built biplane. They also have a Cessna 182, which they used for one of their other projects: missionary dental work in Mexico and Guatemala.

“That was our vacation every year,” she said. “We’d go down there for a month and take our dental supplies and actually fly out into the jungle and work with the poor people. We made a lot of friends down there.”

In fact, they brought back many exchange students to live with them at their home 12 miles south of Spokane (complete with airstrip).

As Dorothy’s art career took off, they also began to use their Cessna for flying to foundries and galleries.

She first began to get interested in clay about 1979, after her children were grown.

“It was like I waited all my life for something to happen to me,” she said. “I always knew I would be able to do something creative.”

She began making sculpted forms out of clay, mostly little kids skiing - a natural subject, since she and her husband were deeply involved in the development of Schweitzer at the time.

After studying with local artists and sculptors, she finally got the courage to cast a bronze. The sculpting techniques were the same; a bronze sculpture is actually a clay sculpture from which molds are made and bronze is poured. Her first was called “First Born,” a mother holding a baby.

“I look at it now, and I think, ‘Her neck is so skinny! I don’t know how she holds up her head. Bad!’,” she said. “But everybody bought it. I don’t know why. I used to think it was because they liked me and knew me, you know. It wasn’t until I got work out in the galleries and people would buy it who didn’t know me that I felt I was really coming along.”

Meanwhile, she was training in places like the Scottsdale Art School and the Loveland (Colo.) Academy of Art, studying with “the finest sculptors in the world.”

Again, her role model was Jack. She watched Jack’s persistence and determination in realizing his dream (Schweitzer), and she decided to do the same to realize her dream of being a top sculptor.

Her turning point came about five years ago, when she was commissioned to do “The Strongest Bond” for the Ronald McDonald House. It was her first “monumental” sculpture and a big success. Since then, she has done at least two or three life-size works a year.

Her style is strictly traditional and realistic, although she says she loves abstract and impressionistic art. She just doesn’t want to do it.

“I went to Europe and saw Michelangelo, the great masters, and when I saw those, that’s where my love for traditional, classical sculpture came from,” she said. “I can’t do anything else. I’ll never live long enough to evolve to impressionistic.”

Her subjects tend toward the emotional and the pensive: a mother and baby, a child with a seashell, a young woman braiding her hair. Her most recent sculpture is titled “Dress Rehearsal,” depicting a ballet dancer tying on a slipper.

“A lot of artists, if they were to do a ballerina, she’d be dancing,” said Fowler. “But I like to do a study of the person and try to get the emotion and the feeling.”

Fowler is acutely aware that she started her sculpting career late, and it has given her a sense of urgency.

“I set really high goals for the age I am,” she said. “I haven’t reached them yet. First, I want to set an example for my children and grandchildren, that when you’re older, life can still be meaningful and special if you’re willing to work for it. Also, I don’t just want to create a few bronzes. I would like to be nationally recognized as one of the top artists.”

Meanwhile, she is taking deep satisfaction in her Princess Mother sculpture. The expectations were almost overwhelming, from all directions - Boeing, the Thai royal family, and even, by extension, the people of Thailand who are still lining up every day to file past the Princess Mother’s body, lying in state.

“It put pressure on me,” she said. “But when I came into this studio and closed that door, it was all up to me.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 2 color photos