Sharing the light.

Not too long ago, you’d have been more likely to find me in a pristine white lab coat than with paint-covered hands.

You see, it wasn’t until recently that I turned the page on an exciting new chapter that engaged my creativity and passion for discovery in a fresh, and what initially seemed like a totally different way.

YOU MIGHT BE WONDERING

how someone transitions from scientist with a tenured professorship at a major research university to uncovering hidden truths with paint and brushes.

It might be easier than you think since both fields require similar habits of mind:

observing
hypothesizing
experimenting

and a desire to discover the truth.

However, artistic pursuit requires additional important variables—

the ideas, instincts, and perceptions of the artist

—which are as true as any scientific measurement.

“The universe buries strange jewels deep within us all, and then stands back to see if we can find them. The hunt to uncover those jewels—that’s creative living.”

— Elizabeth Gilbert, American Author

MY ARTISTIC PROCESS

is rooted in the interplay of my scientific background, the central role of curiosity, hypothesis-driven experimentation, and critical thinking.
Paint is infinite in its possibilities.

I want my paintings to teach me something I don’t already know and take me to another place.

Intuition develops over a lifetime and allowing myself to surrender to it helps me uncover the yearnings and expressions—hidden jewels—buried in my soul.

THE SCIENCE OF ART

My process is simultaneously the same as laboratory science and completely different.

Both in science and art, if you follow the data, it leads to the truth.

In the laboratory, the most successful experiments are those in which all the variables except one are held constant.

In the studio, the most successful paintings are those in which I put several variables into play and change them at once—

I dance the shimmering line between control and surrender.

In the lab, the goal is to repeat the exact experiment over and over to get to the truth.

In the studio, it’s the opposite. The experiment can only be carried out once and the truth can only be found in a singular and distinctive way.

You have to know the rules so you can break them.

Turning gestures on the canvas into gestures of welcome liberation.

Heart Cracked Wide Open

“Robin’s lyrical, process-driven work is inspired by and made manifest through eclectic curiosity and the material surprises she uncovers working with her informed, finely-developed visual vocabulary rooted in gesture. And gesture, as the art critic Dave Hickey once said, ‘is the connective tissue between human beings.’”

— Judy Southerland, Artist and Art Educator