J. Michael Lowe was born in 1942 in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he attended high school. He earned his BFA degree at Ohio University in 1964 and his MFA in Sculpture from Cornell University in 1966. In 1966 he joined the faculty of St. Lawrence University as an instructor and retired holding the G.L. Flint Professorship in Fine Arts. He currently lives and sculpts in Ithaca, New York.