Showgirls and Thunderbirds

Bobbie Ann Howell
Showgirls and Thunderbirds, 2017
Cut paper and acrylic paint
Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art Collection
Gift of the artist
Item Description:
A sheet of deep blue paper shaped like a hexagon is casting a faint orange shadow as it hangs on a wall. A radiating design of stylized Las Vegas showgirls alternating with curving arrows and decorative curls has been cut into the hexagon in a pattern that suggests the facets of a snowflake.
2017.38

Bobbie Ann Howell translates current events, the lives of women, and elements of the western landscape into cut paper imagery, photographic explorations, and other media. “I’m always looking to the landscape and natural forms for shapes, textures and patterns,” she told the Las Vegas Weekly in 2020. “I’m a little addicted to patterns.” A native Nevadan, she received her BFA from Abilene Christian University, Abilene, Texas, and her MFA in Sculpture and Drawing from Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville before moving back to her home state where she currently works as the Program Manager for the Southern Nevada branch of Nevada Humanities. Her work has been exhibited in venues across Nevada, including the Lost City Museum in Overton, Great Basin College in Elko, and at the Donna Beam Fine Art Gallery, Las Vegas. She is held in public and private collections across the United States. (DKS) Her piece, Showgirls and Thunderbirds, is currently on loan from the Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art to Congresswoman Susie Lee's office in the U.S. Capitol.