A favorite with visitors when it was last exhibited in 2007, the newly preserved “Beautiful Holy Jewel Home” stood again inside an Arts Center gallery. The accounts of those who remember the site’s creator brought added depth to this presentation of Loy Bowlin’s visually striking art environment.
Bowlin (1909–1995) grew up on a hardscrabble stock ranch in Mississippi. His childhood was defined by the family’s struggle to make ends meet. Bowlin married in 1933 and made a meager living farming and scrapping during the Depression. After a failed business venture in the 1950s, he divorced. Over the next two decades, Bowlin suffered from bouts of depression and anxiety.
It was Glen Campbell’s 1975 hit record “Rhinestone Cowboy,” that brought joy and purpose to his life. Bowlin adopted the rhinestone cowboy persona. He added rhinestones to his clothes, decorated his 1967 Cadillac, and created a home environment to serve as the backdrop for his showmanship.
“The Beautiful Holy Jewel Home” (c.1975–1990), was a small, extravagantly embellished home in McComb, Mississippi. He adorned much of the exterior and nearly every inch of the interior. The walls were covered with patterns of cutout paper, paint, glitter, and collaged photographs and magazine illustrations.
After Bowlin’s death in 1995 when The Beautiful Holy Jewel Home was slated to be razed, a Houston artist and collector purchased the home with the stipulation that it be removed from the property. The buyer then documented and dismantled the house. In 1998, Kohler Foundation, Inc. acquired the disassembled house and later gifted the home and many of the Bowlin’s works to the John Michael Kohler Arts Center.
In her response to this art environment, folklorist Jennifer Joy Jameson focused on Bowlin’s impact within the McComb region. A collaborative ethnohistory created from recorded oral accounts and memories of those in the area was accompanied by a photo series.
Alex Gartelmann working in the Preservation Lab: Loy Bowlin's Holy Jewel Home at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center, 2016.
Read a special Q & A from the responder, Jennifer Joy Jameson, in our gallery handout.
If you want to learn even more about Loy Bowlin, you can purchase an in-depth publication from our online store or at ARTspace.
Dig deeper into conference sessions, view panelist bios and abstracts, read session descriptions, and continue the conversation in session forums by visiting The Road Less Traveled conference portal.
Through this web portal, you will be able to share new ideas and broaden the collective knowledge and appreciation of this unique style of art making that was the focus of a yearlong series of exhibitions at the Arts Center.
Learn MoreThis exhibition is supported in part by a grant from the Wisconsin Arts Board with funds from the State of Wisconsin, the Wisconsin Department of Tourism, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Funding was also provided by the Institute of Museum and Library Services, Kohler Trust for the Arts and Education, Kohler Foundation, Inc., Herzfeld Foundation and Sargento Foods Inc. The Arts Center thanks its many members for their support of exhibitions and programs through the year. The John Michael Kohler Arts Center is a 501(c)(3) (nonprofit) organization; donations are tax deductible.
The Road Less Traveled 50th anniversary program was conceived by Amy Horst, deputy director for programming. The exhibitions series was organized and curated by Arts Center Curator Karen Patterson. Special thanks to Emily Schlemowitz, assistant curator, for the curation of Driftless: Nick Engelbert & Ernest Hüpeden and Folk & Fable: Levi Fisher Ames & Albert Zahn, and Amy Chaloupka, guest curator of The World in a Garden: Nek Chand and Volumes: Stella Waitzkin.
