McGowan's practice is essentially concerned with the human body, and considers it a primary tool for understanding, mediating, and perceiving the world.
She uses the activity of freediving as a research tool to inform and direct her artwork.
Her current themes address the overwhelm that people report when asked about the scale of the climate crises. Her work attempts to turn this overwhelm inside-out by re-scaling and mapping aspects of the crises to the body, making it a personal and intimate issue.
She makes sculpture, performs on stage and speaks publicly on these topics.

As a professional freediver, she is a multiple National Record holder (currently holds the deepest logged competition dive for an Irish woman at 58m) She is a World Champion Gold Medallist (CMAS WC 2022) and a current World Record holder in CNF (No fins) Masters Women 50-54 age group.