Amy Rowen died on August 21, 2026, at her home in Princeton, NJ, surrounded by family and friends, after a six month battle with acute myeloid leukemia.

Amy was born on January 27, 1952 in Waltham MA, to Herbert H. Rowen and Mildred (Ringel) Rowen. She moved around the country with her family as a child, following her father's academic career from Massachusetts to Iowa, New York, California, Wisconsin, then to the Netherlands (where she went to 4th grade in a Dutch school and became fluent in the language), back to Wisconsin, and finally to Rocky Hill, NJ in 1964. She attended Princeton Public Schools and graduated from Princeton High School in 1969.

Amy was a true artistic prodigy. She drew prolifically and constantly throughout childhood, producing drawings of extraordinary skill and likeness from an early age. When most of us were still making stick figures, Amy was rendering people in motion – a three-quarter face, a swirling skirt, a well-turned ankle in a high heeled shoe, the entwined strands of a braid — and she never stopped drawing. She explored many media over her decades of making art, especially pen and ink, water color, oil, and finally acrylic and mixed media. Although she had many other talents — for music, for languages and literature, for laughter and empathy — it was art that drove her and formed her unwavering center.

After graduating from Indiana University in 1973, she moved back to Rocky Hill, and studied illustration at The School for Visual Arts in New York City, receiving an honorary degree in 1976. She then moved to Manhattan where she worked as a freelance illustrator. Her work was published in magazines and newspapers, including The New York Times Op-Ed page. She also illustrated children's books and worked as a portrait painter, represented by Portraits, Inc.

Amy married Thomas H. Bishop in 1981, and their daughter Karina Rowen Bishop was born in 1986. In 1988, Amy was baptized at Grace Church in New York. After her marriage ended, she earned a Masters in Social Work from New York University in 2004, returned to the Princeton area, and worked as a social worker at Princeton House Behavioral Health. She then moved to Northampton, MA, where for a decade she counseled homeless veterans through the Veterans' Administration in Leeds, MA.

In 2024, Amy retired to Princeton, where she was a devoted parishioner of All Saints' Episcopal Church. Once again, she immersed herself full time in art. After 50 years of making representational art, she turned now to abstraction, producing a final body of work of astonishing variety and depth of feeling. An exhibition of this recent work, Making a Mark, was shown at Princeton Windows at the end of her life.

Amy is survived by her daughter Karina Rowen Bishop (Alejandro Fernandez de Mesa), her beloved grandchildren Luis Tomas Fernandez de Mesa and Clara Rowen Fernandez de Mesa, her sister Marthe Rowen (Craig Barton); as well her nieces, nephews, and cousins.

She was predeceased by her brother Douglas Rowen.

A Celebration of Amy's Life is being planned for later this year.