Love of abstract forms shapes new featured artist

STERLING HEIGHTS — Frank Blowers’ artistic style may often be abstract, but the culmination of his seven decades of artistic work is clear and on display as the Sterling Heights Featured Artist for December and January.

Blowers, 75, of Shelby Township, was recently honored by the city of Sterling Heights, and as a result, his work is temporarily showcased on the Sterling Heights Community Center’s upper level.

Blowers said he has been pursuing art in some form since he was 5 years old, when he was still living in England. He recalls drawing a sailboat, which caught the attention of its owner. The sailboat’s owner offered to pay Blowers 10 shillings — a half pound — for the artwork. After Blowers agreed to the sale, the sailboat owner showed the piece to other sailors and sailboaters, telling them that the young artist could draw them something for a pound.

“He was marketing for me,” Blowers said.

Blowers moved to the U.S. when he was 8 and attended junior high and high school in Roseville. As a youth in junior high school, he designed T-shirts of custom hot rod cars for Detroit Autorama with a friend, Tom Manatine, he said. He added that he learned under a great art teacher, Curt Winnega, in high school.

But upon graduating from high school, the busyness of life often made it impossible to continue devoting much time toward art.

First it was a job at Chrysler; then it was getting drafted into the U.S. Army, he said. After his service, he married his wife, Lynda, of now 54 years.

Blowers said he also was a banker for 41 years and became the president of two community banks. Then he worked for the 39th District Court and Wolverine Harley-Davidson before retiring in 2017. Then he decided to get back into the art game.

“There was something in my life that was missing. I wanted to get into it, and that was art,” he said.

Blowers said he first got back to drawing and acrylic painting, and soon, he started studying with a mentor, John Beckley, who lives in France.

“He’s a genius at abstract painting, and I just loved it,” Blowers said.

He explained that abstract art’s appeal lies in that it doesn’t require references, just a picture in one’s head.

“You’re creating right from scratch. You’re creating your own. That’s what I love about it,” he said.

Blowers said Lynda and a best friend of the couple, Linda Fekin, helped him pick which pieces to include in the Sterling Heights Featured Artist showcase. He explained that many of the presented artwork is in black and white, which he added is popular right now. But he said he did include some works with color, too.

“I added a little bit of color in there,” he said. “I love to do painting of wine bottles and wine glasses. One has got a little bit of red in it, and one had got a lot of blue in it.”

Jeanne Schabath-Lewis, from the Sterling Heights Arts Commission, said Blowers’ work is “Salvador Dali-esque” and has a different palette compared to what people are used to.

“He actually, probably, is one of our most unique,” she said. “We had tons and tons of stuff to review. It was just a neat process to see all the diversity in that style.”

Blowers said he has more work to do in the weeks ahead. He said a New York client wants a geometric abstract art piece in neon colors. And Blowers said he also is working on a colorful Detroit skyline piece that will include stenciled images and references to Motown, the Big 3, the Spirit of Detroit statue and more.

“It’s going along just like I thought it would,” he said of the Detroit piece. “My next plan is probably going to be New York City.”