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Waco artist Jack Bowers shows off work intended to make viewers think about how they look at things in the Art Center Waco show “Perspectivism.”

For artist Jack Bowers, what one sees in art depends in large part on the viewer’s perspective: the location of the viewer to the artwork, the angle of the art and what the viewer might think about what she’s seeing.

That’s the theme of his Art Center Waco show “Perspectivism,” which opens Thursday and runs through Nov. 5 at the center.

The show spans ceramics, metal work, digital images and painting, reflecting the media used by the 75-year-old artist and a career of imagining how first-time views may not be the best ones.

“We bring our own perspective to pretty much anything we are doing,” said Bowers, who moved to Waco from southern California with his wife Sheree Haddix about two years ago and is quick to sing the city’s praises.

“Perspectivism” shows Bowers playing with viewpoints in a variety of media. Flat clay pieces that he calls shields bear multiple imprints, including words, and colors that seem a spontaneous product of their firing. Common to several of the shields are black holes, some of which are actually indented spaces and others simply a non-reflective black paint that look like that.

A clay shield presents viewers with meanings shaped by impressions.

Other clay sculptures start with rough-formed bases that taper into suddenly flat, geometrical surfaces, like two-dimensional drawings translated into three dimensions.

Bowers’ metal work in the exhibit plays with color from reflected light, blue-painted aluminum panels with back surfaces painted in red or yellow. The reflection of light on the panels’ backs cast faint halos of color on the wall — depending, of course, where one is standing.

A third portion of “Perspectivism” features large digital photos that have contrasting inset images, then 3-D metal shapes affixed to the 2-D work. In one, a large view of a mountainous landscape has an inset of a miniature billboard with image of an interstate cloverleaf. Acting as a third view to consider is a folded piece of painted metal.

Back-painted metal panels cast colored shadows.

A blue metal shape adds more lines and dimensions to consider.

The clay work taps into his earliest contact with art and he says it’s the medium that speaks the strongest to him. Bowers grew up in Big Spring and the Dallas area, with his first exposure to art at the clay studio his grandmother Opal Bigler ran. He studied and was involved with the Creative Arts Center of Dallas in the 1970s before moving to Aspen, Colorado, where he spent seven years.

The artist “got restless” and moved to California, teaching at the San Francisco Art Institute from 1979 to 1984, from where he earned a master’s degree in fine arts in 1984. Bowers later moved to Los Angeles and put down roots there, working as a graphic artist and teaching at the University of California, Berkeley. He and his wife moved to Waco to be closer to her family members in the Dallas area.

His work as a graphic artist pays the bills and he said a lot of the other artwork he creates is to explore ideas. “I’m more interested in finding out how things work,” he said. “I’m preoccupied with what do our perspectives mean (to artwork) ... What do our thoughts do?”

Rough and flat surfaces combine in several of Bowers' clay sculptures.

When, where: Thursday through Nov. 5 at Art Center Waco, 701 S. Eighth St. Hours: 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesdays-Fridays, 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturdays. Opening reception, 6-8 p.m. Thursday.

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Carl Hoover has covered Waco arts and entertainment, and more, for the Tribune-Herald since 1984.

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For artist Jack Bowers, what one sees in art depends in large part on the viewer's perspective: the location of the viewer to the artwork, the angle of the art and what the viewer might think about what she's seeing.

The latest chapter in the story of an unlikely friendship between a Baylor student and an irascible Waco homeless man centers on Saturday's fundraiser for a scholarship in his name.

Waco artist Jack Bowers shows off work intended to make viewers think about how they look at things in the Art Center Waco show “Perspectivism.”

A clay shield presents viewers with meanings shaped by impressions.

Back-painted metal panels cast colored shadows.

Rough and flat surfaces combine in several of Bowers' clay sculptures.

A blue metal shape adds more lines and dimensions to consider.

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