This month, we present:  PATTI ROBINSON. 

Q. When did you fall in love with the arts?

PR: The summer after my junior year in college, I toured Europe with the chair of the

DePauw University Art Department.  For eight weeks we saw unbelievable treasures.

What a wonderful way to stimulate a love of the arts.

Q. Who and What inspires you?

PR: Moments in time are my inspiration.  This past weekent I was driving on a two-lane highway in Illinois through dried wheat fields when a flock of crows flew off against a stormy sky.  For that moment I was living in Van Gogh's "Wheat Field With Crows".  The person most inspirational to me has been Gerd Koch.  Through his lectures I began to see a simple shadow as a moment of wonder, all my visual perception was enhanced.

                                        

Q. What is your definition of art?

PR:  Art is a tangible reflection of the artist's core. Conceptualizing an idea and bringing it to focused form.

Q.  Some say that art communicates, strives to communicate to its audience.  What are your paintings' whispering?

PR:  Paintings bare the soul.  Hopefully, I communicate my great love of beauty and my personal growth as I journey.

Q. What has been your favorite museum exhibition?

PR:  Oh! It's so hard to choose.  With my sister I have had a wonderful opportunity to view many retrospectives at the Washington National Gallery - Gaugin, Matissse, Cezanne, Degas, DeKooning, Jasper Johns, Robert Bateman.

At an El Greco exhibition in New York I was overwhelmed with the magnificence.  But, to choose---it would have to be Van Gogh!  To stand in front of a Van Gogh is to be alive.

Q. What, if anything, are you currently obsessed with?

PR:  Cramming!  Missing nothing!  Our opportunities outpace us.

Q. Where were you born?

PR:  Alhambra, CA.  I was there until age three when we relocated to Riverside, west of Chicago.

Q. Does your family, has your family influenced you as an artist?

PR:  My sons encourage me to be more prolific.

Q. What are you currently reading?

PR:  Without Precedent (the inside story of the 911 Commission) by Thomas Kean and Lee Hamilton.

Q. What does it mean to you to be an Artist In Residence at SCIART?

PR:  This is a dynamic environment.  I give credit to our innovative gallery director, Michele, and the studio artists with amazing, creative gifts.  I am humbled by these friendships.