“Figs”
By James Eaton
http://www.nationnotes.us/
Posted on December 4, 2012
Robin Anderson is a talented still life artist from Southern
California. Her past subjects have
primarily been flowers – often on a grand style. “Figs” is a significant departure from
Robin’s previous work. The subject
challenges more than pleases the patron; but that said, “Figs” pleases me
greatly. Almost everything about this
painting is a serious departure from Robin’s past work including subject,
condition of the subject, color, technique, atmosphere, space, and the
intangible sense of life as raw, physical, and seductively beautiful. Robin has done with her art what I would like
to do with my life, if I were not so cowardly and proud; I believe that is the
essence of her job as an artist. Robin
has undergone an enormous transformation and then showed it to us, without
hesitation, with canvas and paint.
Robin painted this image from life, not a photo, and that
alone explains a raw intensity to the canvas I have rarely seen in her
work. This painting is more accessible
to the male sensibility. It bleeds like
an open wound earned in battle and worn like an emblem of courage. If my image makes you uneasy, you have never
played a dangerous, physical sport, or suffered an injury for a noble purpose. Robin’s “Figs” capture both the immediacy and
courage of living with natural forces.
Like “Figure With Meat” by English Painter Francis Bacon, Robin’s figs
deliver the raw, intensity of nature minus Bacon’s surreal neurotic twists.
Figs are possessed of an ancient symbolism, endowing them
with sacred status. They are soft,
sweet, often dark and brooding, yet when ripe, their flesh opens easily and
bleeds truth. Like the sacred heart of a
Madonna in a dark, musty Catholic Church, ripe figs perform their Mass in
Latin. Even if we don’t understand the
ancient language, we love the sacred rite as it pours over our troubled souls
with the sweet bouquet of abundant redemption.
Robin’s figs bring this sense of the Mass, of life redeemed by blood
sacrifice, as I sit alone on the back pew.
Toward the back of the table, Robin’s dark, uncut figs are beautiful in
their simplicity, color, and anticipation, but are then entirely upstaged by
the red, ripe figs already executed and oozing life on the ancient wood altar.
Robin’s new technique excites me on a number of levels. The background space reflects the colors of
the subjects, but with the ambiguity of a primal dimension where the sacred and
the profane separate in the dark. The
rough hue of the wood table does not reflect the light of the image – as in
some of Robin’s earlier paintings. These
figs are not concerned about reflected light; they are brooding, immediate, and
possess a light of their own. The wood
table is rough and scarred from previous sacred executions. This would be a terrifying image, the soul
resting on the altar of its own destruction, but the figs willingly give up
their flesh and blood. It is their
purpose. It is why they exist. It is also why I like the subject matter of
this painting.
After all the analysis of symbol and subject, Robin
Anderson’s “Figs” is simply a very good painting. While open to analysis, it passes the
ultimate test and qualifies as an accomplished, enjoyable work of art. I would display this painting in my home with
an arrangement of artifacts, possibly an antique crucifix or collection of
eclectic but deeply evocative paintings and drawings. With “Figs”, Robin crossed over to a new
style and tapped into a new thought stream.
She showed us something of courage and sacrifice, and she showed us
something of herself. She can wear this
canvas like an emblem of sacred courage. I look forward to her next painting. –
Jim Eaton
"Still Life Animating Memory"
By James Eaton
http://www.nationnotes.us/
Posted on January 16, 2013
Interpreting art is dangerous business. So many
personalities bruise so easily – fresh fruit, still life, and human ego have so
much in common. Still, reviewing Southern California still life artist, Robin
Anderson, is great fun and a risk worth taking. Knowing and reviewing gifted
people is more amusing than possessing talent itself.
Accommodating change is the most difficult process humans
endure; in our small, inner world, memory fades behind a veil of distorted
vision. Ultimately, memory becomes happier, and sometimes more sad, than the
actual moment. But the demands of time are dominant and memory will endure in
its imperfect, partially hidden world, peeking out from behind the
semi-translucent veil of moments past. Robin Anderson parts the veil to the
unconscious and allows us a glimpse.
Artists have a sacred duty to bring veiled memories to
light. The talented artist is the midwife that delivers us to the understanding
we normally choose to ignore, but in wisdom, we finally embrace. A talented
artist never performs this sacred task directly; the artist is grounded by
indirect inference. The observer too, like the artist, must struggle for
meaning or the baby will never be delivered. The artist’s technique is not the
source of initial engagement – although that inspection comes later. A
painting’s success is revealed by engaging the sense of humanity and memory,
both present, and standing just the other side of gauzy veil.
Robin Anderson’s new paintings qualify as the midwife of
change – indirect, veiled, possessed of joy and sadness, and almost present, if
not for the small distance separating memory from the now. Robin is painting
something far more significant than still life. Robin is representing a deeper
aesthetic. Her current paintings incorporate a sense of the moment, of insight,
and tear at time to let consciousness breath.
I am always aware of my male sensibility when judging art.
When a man judges another man’s art, the process of aesthetic appraisal is much
easier. But when a man judges a woman’s art, the process is much more complex;
as with all gender communication, this is more a problem of exposition than
insight. While I recognize the feminine intelligence of Robin’s hand and eye, I
also recognize that she is expressing ideas universal to all humankind,
independent of mere gender, and offering a more successful aesthetic available
to both male and female sensibilities. This is the talent and the
accomplishment of a gifted artist.
The two paintings above, “Tangerines” and “Geraniums” are
new arrivals to Robin’s family. She has clearly made a dramatic effort to
separate from her former studied technique of still life on a grand scale. It
is less that these paintings are less grand and more that they are just so much
more accessible. They are human, common, imperfect in form and frame. They are
wounded by life, yet filled with all the human divinity that inspires life on a
grand scale.
“Tangerines” is reminiscent of Robin’s recent “Figs” in
design and presentation, yet reflective of the place citrus has in the well-lit
palette of culinary sense and oil on canvas. The tangerines reflect the light
in the room. They enable a reflection on the polished table. They do not brood.
They are not guilty. And they have nothing to confess. The vase in the
background is a classic piece, partially framed, and the image lifts. The
tangerines are both whole and partially crushed. This is an important
representation. The dichotomy of what is apparent and what exists on the inside
is an important vision. More, the fact that what exists on the interior is
partially crushed and oozing life is what catapults the meaning of the images
to a higher level of philosophical and psychological drama.
“Geraniums” is also a very good painting, but for different
reasons than “Tangerines”. It is beautiful and immediate, common, but also
noble. It is pretty in the feminine sense, but commonly accessible to all. With
“Geraniums”, the eye will naturally follow the image without being condemned
for staring. The pedals are not studied. The stems follow a natural course,
weighed down by life itself. The simple fruit jar holding the flowers distorts
the image behind the veil of glass and water, causing memory, leaf, and plant stem
to dissolve into a recognizable chaos. The painting affects me as does a still
life by Manet painted over a century ago. For Robin to arrive at the same place
as Manet is only the highest of achievements and makes me want more, very soon.
Of no less importance is the background for each painting.
Figure is only known in context. Robin’s context offers a germane background
that does not demand attention unless you choose it. This matter immediately
takes me to technique. The brush is intense and lifting, swirling the eye
behind the formal image. I like this technique as much as I like the painting’s
subject. A bad context will ensure a bad painting – Robin sidesteps this
problem very nicely.
Robin’s art is changing. That may be a source of its
immediacy and risk. This is a moment in an artist’s history that is
recognizable, vulnerable, and disappears as the norm becomes the established
and the creative opening closes. This is the energy of Robin’s work that evokes
the sense of memory and humanity lost in time, yet present in the chaos of
present life. – Jim Eaton
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