We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Marilyn Lowey a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Marilyn, thanks for joining us today. Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?

After many years working as a theatrical Lighting Designer for International high profile projects, the entertainment business started to change due to budgetary restrictions. In most usual situations a lighting Designer was hired for a project and along with me came a programmer, and if budget permitted an assistant. Now, budgets were getting sliced and programmers and show electricians were getting hired to design lighting. Clients viewed the savings as a tremendous plus even though the quality was not quite the same. I saw the writing on the wall and decided with much hesitation to begin a new chapter. After all, I studied many years earning a MFA in Lighting Design and Theatre Technology from Carnegie Mellon University, pounded the pavement and built up an excellent business where I was now earning pennies on the dollar. I applied to Otis College of Art and Design for what they call “a fifth year program”. You take classes but they do not add up to a degree. I was accepted and spent the next year and a half learning a new way to see, view art and develop a new sensability to think. I was now taking a huge risk but was not concerned with the outcome and was living out of learning. At Otis I had studio visits with many outside artists and curators. They encouraged me to continue my studies and apply to a super great Graduate School.
I took their advice and was accepted at the California Institute of the Arts.
The beat goes on!!!

Marilyn, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

When I told my parents that I wanted to go into Theatre, the next day they took me for vocational testing at Bnai Brith. I did not know what the issue was. I did not want to hear their pessimism. I knew different, I was going to succeed. I applied to college knowing that theatre was my direction. Not sure which facet, but definitely theatre. I was accepted to Emerson College in Boston. Long story short, I excelled in Lighting Design`and focused all my energy there. I worked during my college years at various lighting rental companies, doing all the grunge work. My time was spent packing up touring shows, cleaning beer off lighting cables, and painting road boxes as the tours changed from month to month. During the summer I worked at summer stock companies on east and west coasts as a lighting intern and assistant lighting designer. I was driven. No one was going to there before me. I was the youngest at every production meeting, and my fresh ideas were received and implemented into productions. As a young designer I decided I needed a finishing school and applied to various graduate schools for theatre. I entered Carnegie Mellon University on a scholarship for a MFA in Lighting Design and Theatre Technology. After grad school I moved to NYC and within two weeks I was assisting on Broadway Shows, and designing off off off Broadway with other CMU graduates. I was on my way. However, I had been privileged by using many new computer lighting consoles, and while this new technology was not being implemented on Broadway, I moved along looking for jobs in the entertainment industry. I shortly joined an established lighting design firm. There I designed performing artist touring shows, industrial shows, network television shows, and permanent theatrical architectural installations. I worked with this illustrious firm for six years and decided it was time to do it on my own. On my own I won an Lighting Design Emmy for a Neil Diamond TV Variety Concert Special. I was still running my own race. I designed for the world class illusionists, Siegfried & Roy, designed projects in Saudi Arabia where I was the first woman permitted to work in that country as a Lighting Designer. I was the lighting designer for Cyndi Lauper, Diana Ross, Michael Feinstein, various champion figure skating shows. opening ceremonies for the World Cup Cricket Games in Capetown SA, Neil Diamond for 39 years, and one of Pope Benedict XVI appeaerances in New York City. I am proud of all these accomplishments. I had passion. And that passion is what drove me then and still drives me today.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

When I first walked into my sculpture class at Otis College of Art & Design, my sculpture instructor listened to my creative design history and gave me an assignment that night. She asked me,”What’s the difference between a designer and an artist”? I had always thought of myself as an artist who paints with lights and video tools. The correct answer, “A designer solves someone else’s problems, and an artist creates and solves their problems.” It took me a moment to ponder, but as the week and semester wore on, I knew what challenges and opportunities lie ahead.
For years I solved design issues and now I was faced with creating my own content/ideas, and then deciding what materials and how I was going to implement my intention. That challenge exposed me to another new world. Each artwork that is created has many levels of back stories that are living within the artist. Now let’s flip to the viewer.
How does a non-creative partake of this viewing that could tell many stories, or do they just walk by?
As a Lighting Designer I felt that if a song or passage that I had illuminated was of interest to me, my viewer would find it interesting too. I was my most critical viewer and will always be. You need to trust your instincts but remain open in that process. Other ideas and methods might unfold when you least expect it.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

Being an artist is a solo sport. You create alone, and test that idea within your mind’s eye before you begin. Creating a fertile thought that will grow into an artwork to last the test of time is the most rewarding feeling. Of course the test of time is something you might not be there to witness. Which explains how many artists do not receive accolades while they are living. Van Gogh could not sell an artwork during his lifetime. But I feel and know in my heart when an artwork is satisfactory to me that is the most rewarding aspect to being creative.
In any of my personal journey stories, I have not mentioned the financial reward of art. I did always focus on a job, or now an artwork and know the money would follow. And I think for a majority of creatives, the money is the last part of the reward.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.MarilynLowey.com
• Instagram: mlowey2022
• Facebook: Marilyn Lowey
• Linkedin: Marilyn Lowey
• Youtube: MJLowey
• Other: Vimeo: Marilyn Lowey