Background
Sister Adele (The real name is Eugenia Rowland) was born on December 4, 1915 in New Bedford, Massachusetts, United States. She was the daughter of Arthur Eugene and Helen (Kelly) Rowland.
Sister Adele (The real name is Eugenia Rowland) was born on December 4, 1915 in New Bedford, Massachusetts, United States. She was the daughter of Arthur Eugene and Helen (Kelly) Rowland.
Adele Sister studied at Camegie-Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (1934-35), before receiving her Bachelor of Science (1938) and Master of Science (1940) from the University of Southern California, Los Angeles. She earned her Doctor of Philosophy from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1949.
From 1940 to 1950, Sister Adele was an English professor at California State University, Fresno. Sister Adele had been an artist-in-residence in photography at Dominican College, San Rafael, California since 1974. She was associate professor of humanities at that school from 1950 to 1974.
By 1975 Sister Adele's photomontages were winning national and international awards, and she was appointed Dominican College (now Dominican University of California) Artist-in-Residence. Her work has been seen in over a hundred group exhibitions, while her solo shows have been held in Florence and Milan, Italy; in Beijing and Nanking, China; in Singapore, and throughout the United States.
Sister Adele belongs to SPE, RPS and Friends of Photography, and serves on the Board of Directors of San Francisco Women Artists.
Eugenia Rowland was fondly called the "Grandmother" for her listening presence and advice to the artists at every gathering she attended. She even passed up going to the opening of her show in the Oslo hall when the Nobel prizes are awarded.