Weaving Life with Light and Love by Rhaelene Lowther, SAU art professor
SAU Associate Professor of Art Rhaelene Rollins Lowther was selected for the 13th International Art Competition and Exhibition in Salt Lake City, UT. With nearly 600 applicants from around the world submitting their work, Lowther’s entry was one of 150 chosen. Her piece “Weaving Life with Light and Love” was on display at the Church History Museum through January 3, 2026.
“It was very exciting,” Lowther said of the news. “This is the biggest show I’ve ever been in, and it felt great to have my work in with a larger body of pieces that I really respect.”
The journey to creating “Weaving Life with Light and Love” did not start when the competition’s brief “Lift Up the Hands Which Hang Down” was announced in 2022; for Lowther, the process began in 2019. In an effort to make art for herself again and return to her passion for painting, Lowther challenged herself to complete one painting per day of something interesting that she had seen. This changed the way she thought about making art, reinforcing for her the importance of consistency and that big ideas can bloom from what she called “small prosaic things.”
In 2020, a colleague Anna Zusman joined Lowther on her walks, and they discovered that, while their art was vastly different, they were drawn to similar subjects. This inspired their series Quotidian Moments: Different Lenses, an ongoing project that has been exhibited at SAU, Texarkana, Pine Bluff, Arkadelphia, and El Dorado.
“My paintings have gotten bigger and more ambitious over the last five years as that consistency has kicked in—the consistency of not only creating work but thinking about art and talking with other artists about the art that we’re making. That is part of what inspired my work in the museum show.”
“Weaving Life with Light and Love” began as a painting of an image, taken from one of Lowther’s morning walks, cut into strips and woven together. Scriptures, quotations, and poems were written on the canvas. The holy words were then woven through with golden thread.
“For a year, I’d been collecting quotes and poems and scripture that were uplifting to me. They were all related to light, love, compassion and care for others,” Lowther said.
Offerings by Rhaelene Lowther, SAU art professor
Another work of Lowther’s entitled “Offerings” was part of a traveling exhibition called Small Works on Paper, a juried show that was shown at SAU and the University of Monticello during October.
Lowther was born in Logan, UT, but made herself at home in California, Minnesota, and Salt Lake City over the years. She earned her BFA in painting and BA in art education from Brigham Young University and began a career as an artist in the video game industry while raising three children.
After working for a decade for companies like Access Software, Microsoft, and Sensory Sweep Studios, Lowther decided to return to school. She earned her MFA from Utah State and moved to Magnolia, AR, to start the game design program at SAU, where she taught 3D modeling, animation, technical art, and digital art and animation for 12 years.
Lowther won the Bobo Shinn Grand Prize Memorial Award at the Magnolia Blossom Festival in 2025, showed pieces in the Norton Gallery in Shreveport, LA, and most recently her work traveled from the Ark-La-Tex to Salt Lake City for the exhibition.
About SAU:
Southern Arkansas University provides students with the complete college experience in a caring environment of service, innovation, and community. With more than 100 degrees across four distinct colleges and the School of Graduate Studies, SAU initiates new degree programs to meet the needs of today’s career and professional trends. To learn more about SAU, visit www.saumag.edu.
