Around the country several other artists were experimenting with this new concept and in 1962 he was invited to show his work at the Pasadena Art Museum.

In 1962 Dowd's work was included, along with Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, Jim Dine, Phillip Hefferton, Joe Goode, Edward Ruscha, and Wayne Thiebaud, in the historically important and ground-breaking New Painting of Common Objects, curated by Walter Hopps at the Pasadena Art Museum.

Hoover's FBI and the government thought anybody who was anti-establishment should be investigated and persecuted despite the right of freedom of expression.

They took him down to the Federal building in downtown LA, where they sternly read to him a litany of counterfeiting laws.

"My situation as a young artist, struggling at that point, was that I certainly didn't need any major problems added onto my life at the moment, in terms of survival and trying to do my work".

In 1969 Charles Manson and the Tate–LaBianca murders took place in L.A. and Dowd's artist friend John Altoon died of a sudden heart attack at age 44.

In late 1969 Dowd began a new series of paintings Through the Object Barrier and in 1970 he moved to SoHo, New York.

He did commission work in New York City, painting Windows with a View on walls in windowless offices.

After moving Dowd and fellow artist John Altoon opened an art supply store and studio at 6500 Santa Monica Blvd., lA.

In 1989 Dowd was included in LA Pop of the Sixties, a nine-person exhibition curated by Ann Ayres at the Newport Harbor Art Museum.

In 1991 the Smithsonian included Dowd's paintings in the traveling exhibition "The Realm of the Coin: Money in Contemporary Art" curated by Barbara Coller.

Dowd's famous 1965 painting "Van Gogh Dollar" (owned by Joni Gordon of L.A.) was featured.

Unable to afford the costs of medical care, and perhaps to proud to ask for financial help that would have prolonged or saved his life, Dowd's condition worsened, and he quietly moved back to Los Angeles.

He was quietly admitted to a Hospice Home where he died of complications of end-stage renal failure.

The ex-Marine turned "Pop Artist" lived up to the Marine Motto, "Semper fidelis" which means, "Always Faithful".