Nellie Mae Rowe

Rowe’s drawings teem with animals, recalling her rural upbringing on a farm in Fayetteville, Georgia. In this sheet, two human figures hover in a dreamlike space alongside some twenty animals, including birds, dogs, and snakes. Rowe’s use of the paper reserve creates a feeling of openness, even porousness, amid the density of her marks, which extend from edge to edge of the sheet. This almost gestational space is indeterminate, enhancing the sense that the figures are all interconnected.