Who Am I?
‘ “I am not who you tlhought you were.”
My name is Burnell Yow! Since 1980, I have been using an exclamation mark at the end of my last name. The reason will make sense once I explain it, but I’ll save that for another time. Creatively speaking, I have used many words to describe what I am, do and have done: words like artist, creative, surrealist, intuitive, proud liberal, hippie, collagist, painter, poet, songwriter, radicalized socialist (actually that one came from my Trump-supporting Republican brother). Others include ukulele player, guitarist, and flute player. Bottom line, I am a human being who has created works in the varied media of painting, collage (both analogue & digital), assemblage, sculpture, digital art, photography, and music.
As a dedicated introvert, I have never actively sought fame. Although, fortune might have been nice. Miraculously, despite my social anxiety disorder, my name and work has appeared in 500 Cabinets, Direct Art, American Style Magazine, Red Herring, Art Matters, Andre Codrescu’s Exquitsite Corpse Journal, Philadelphia Inquirer Sunday Magazine, Synapse, City Paper, Eye Level, and in Philadelphia Magazine (where I and my wife, composer Elizabeth A. Alexander, were named two of the twenty-five “hippest” people in Philadelphia).
From 1995 to 2023, I maintained a full-time studio called Raven’s Wing, which was located in the Fitler Square area of Philadelphia. My love of working with found objects and trash lead to becoming a member of the Philadelphia Dumpster Divers – a group of 60+ Philadelphia artists who use trash to make art and a statement at the same time.
The fruits of my creative labors have been shown in numerous venues and is viewable on the web right where you are at this very moment. How convenient, eh?
Artist’s Statement
After nearly seventy-five years of sometimes following rules and sometimes ignoring them, I have come to the realization that there are no rules, only materials. Art is, when all is said and done, a leap into the dark.
I am an intuitive artist in that I work from the heart, not the head. The unforseen event, the “accident,” the unexpected all play a very large part in my creative play. Seldom is anything planned. I prefer to let the materials suggest the direction of a work.
So, what I would suggest to anyone making art is to trust your intuition, your inner knowing; to allow yourself to be i immersed in the process of creation as a joyous and sacred dance of materials; to neither listen to critics nor be one; and finally, to leap into the dark secure in the knowing that wherever your feet touch down will be the right place at the right time.
As far as materials go, I work with just about anything: paint, wood, glass, plastic, fabric, etc. I use a lot of “found” objects in my work: discarded items rescued from the trash, or found at flea markets or thrift stores. They are old, used and with a history that’s a mystery, which lends them a magical quality.
Note: Approximately fifteen years ago, I was diagnosed with Facial Dystonia, which manifested through Blepharospasm. And a five years later came Essential Tremors. The tremors ended my use of hand tools and power tools. For the last three years, I have been working in the digital realm – digital is more forgiving. I’m grateful for the back button. I have now created a substantial body of new work in what is best described as Surreal Digital Collage. In July of 2026, I had my first public exhibition of the new work at Dupree Gallery in Philadelphia. Where there’s a will, one finds a way.
Burnell Yow! • Raven’s Wing Studio, Philadelphia, PA 19147 • burnell@ravenswingstudio.com
“The Door Without a Key is the Door of Dreams; it is the door by which the sensitive escape into insanity…and artists use it as a window in a watch-tower.”
~Dion Fortune (1890-1946) an influential English occultist and author.