A sacred clown has taken up residence above Downs Street. With unfurling limbs forming an arch against the sky, Sarah Rowe’s first neon sculpture occupies the rooftop of Lite Brite Neon Studio in Kingston. Its hand-painted surface evokes fire opal; neon tubing shares space with incandescent bulbs, railroad reflectors, and a cut cue ball. For an artist accustomed to working with pigment, the electricity has opened another avenue of expression.
“I find myself thinking in light and noticing the inner workings of the neon lights in my environment now, curiosity sparked,” Rowe writes in a statement about the work.
Lite Brite’s celebration of its inaugural Native Neon residency marks the culmination of a program announced earlier this year. Developed with the Walker Youngbird Foundation, the residency gives an Indigenous artist new to neon access to the equipment, technical expertise, and collaborative labor required to work in the medium. Rowe, an Omaha-based artist and member of the Ponca Tribe of Nebraska, was selected as its first recipient in May. Artist Marie Watt, of the Seneca Nation, served as primary advisor.
The resulting sculpture depicts a Heyoka, the sacred clown of Lakota tradition and a recurring presence in Rowe’s work. Her visual vocabulary draws on Lakota cosmology, winter counts, and Plains ledger art, mixing traditional imagery with dream figures and imagined landscapes. In her account, the Heyoka’s humor and contrary spirit offer medicine for difficulty and uncertainty, shifting perspectives and making room for connection.
Here, that figure becomes an opening onto the sky. Clouds move through the space framed by its limbs, bringing the changing atmosphere into conversation with the illuminated sculpture. Rowe describes the work as a blessing for human and nonhuman beings, its warrior spirit both gentle and fierce.
Making it required translating the gestures of drawing into glass, light, and a structure capable of withstanding outdoor conditions. Rowe hand-painted the cut aluminum base, giving it a pearlescent sheen, and attached dimensional elements. She also tried bending glass for the first time, an experience that left her eager to return to the torches. The wiring remains visible behind the sculpture, exposing something of its construction.
That encounter with the workshop is central to Native Neon. Valued at $50,000, the residency includes a $10,000 artist stipend alongside fabrication, materials, studio time, and instruction. The finished artwork belongs to the artist, who also retains its intellectual property rights. The support makes an expensive, specialized medium available for experimentation.
For Rowe, the first illumination brought the collaboration into focus. “I was awestruck when we first plugged in the piece,” she writes. “My spirit was moved not only by the vibrancy of the neon but by the power of all the human hands it took to bring this work to life.”
“And Her Whole Body Was Smiling” opens Saturday, November 7, from 6 to 9pm at Lite Brite Neon Studio, 26 Downs Street in Kingston. The celebration includes a fire pit, s’mores, and beverages, with guests encouraged to bring their own skates—a suitably playful gathering beneath Rowe’s luminous rooftop figure.
