Fish sculptor's work lures viewers

PERKINS, Okla. (AP) _ Self-taught sculptor John Rogers Fowler insists the majority of his exposure comes via word of mouth. <br><br>Apparently, word gets around. <br><br>Fowler's stainless steel sculptures

Thursday, December 14th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

PERKINS, Okla. (AP) _ Self-taught sculptor John Rogers Fowler insists the majority of his exposure comes via word of mouth.

Apparently, word gets around.

Fowler's stainless steel sculptures of fish have been purchased by some of the most powerful and influential people on the planet.

Vice president-elect Dick Cheney owns one of Fowler's rainbow trout, as does media giant Ted Turner. Fowler's pieces also have found their way into the homes and workplaces of television news anchor Tom Brokaw (Atlantic salmon) and professional golfer Greg Norman (a pair of permit, a fish common to the Florida Keys).

Says Fowler of his dynamic clientele: ``Someone will see something in a friend's home and they will call.''

Developers with the Oklahoma Aquarium in Jenks picked up the phone several years ago, arranging a meeting with him. The man of steel impressed the aquarium brass so much that they asked him to do an outdoor sculpture for the $15 million facility.

``He had indicated that he would like to have an opportunity for us to consider him,'' aquarium director Doug Kemper said. ``After we saw his work, there was no question we would want him to do his piece. That's even before I knew his client list.

``His work is beyond compliment.''

Once completed _ Fowler is only in the preliminary stages _ the sculpture will sit at the entrance of the Jenks facility. It is slated to open on the west bank of the Arkansas River in the summer of 2002.

The scene will comprise three large striped bass suspended over a group of rocks, said Fowler, 49. His first outdoor piece and his largest collective work to date, it will be roughly 3-by-8 feet and weigh between 250 and 300 pounds, he said.

``We're the Oklahoma Aquarium,'' Kemper said. ``It's just an added bonus to be able to have quality folks involved with us who are also from Oklahoma.''

By design, Fowler is better known outside the state than in. He markets primarily to large metropolitan areas in Florida and the Rocky Mountain region.

``I've chosen anonymity in Oklahoma,'' Fowler said. ``A lot of the people who live around us don't even know what we do.''

From inside a modest A-frame workshop in rural Perkins, Fowler and his wife, Cathy, his full- time assistant, turn out pieces that continually turn the heads of gallery hounds.

Fowler uses a process that involves stainless steel castings and a transparent patina for color saturation. His sculptures' sense of realism comes from his own experiences as a flyfisherman and the medium itself _ stainless steel.

``I've always been interested in art business,'' said Fowler, who sculpts fish exclusively. ``But there was what I perceived was a void in the market in terms of really neat fish available in galleries.

``Everything I saw had kind of a dull, opaque finish. People had typically done a sculpture of a fish like they would have done a mammal. Fish don't reflect light like mammals.''

He and his wife create each sculpture by hand. Details such as scales are cut into a wax model, which is sent to a foundry that transforms it into stainless steel.

The artist then painstakingly polishes the metal, adding color when necessary.

``As a result,'' Fowler says, ``when the light hits these sculptures, light is reflected back through the transparent patina and they look real,'' Fowler said.

Fowler's subjects include virtually all of the North American trout and salmon as well as the different species that anglers pursue on the world's saltwater flats, including bonefish, permit, tarpon and redfish.

His pieces typically range from 8-inch rainbow trout ($900) to a 4-foot Atlantic salmon ($12,000).

Fowler said he had no traditional education or background in the arts. But when he moved his family from New Mexico about 10 years ago, he did have a vision.

``We didn't know what you were supposed to do or not do,'' said Fowler, whose daughter, Jessie, is a high school senior. ``We had no rules or boundaries. We wound up with something that was totally different than what people had seen in galleries before. We have just a tiny niche in the art business, but it's working for us.''

Fowler downplays his success, focusing instead on the craft and the hard work behind it.

``I'm more comfortable with saying I'm in the art business,'' he said, ``rather than saying I'm an artist.''

Cheney and company would no doubt disagree.