Today we’d like to introduce you to Gina Lee-Robbins.
Gina, we’d love to hear your story and how you got to where you are today both personally and as an artist.
I really don’t have any formal art training. My academic background is in languages and literature. But I was always interested in making things. I remember at age 6 stringing a necklace of punk tree seeds from my Florida yard as a wedding gift for my ballet teacher. Growing up, my mother was a tremendous example. She always had a large abstract painting in process on an easel in the laundry room and was able to find us a contemporary art gallery or museum no matter what corner of the world our family vacations took us. I made most of my favorite clothes and accessories in high school, and in college I launched a line of jewelry made from papier-mâché, clay and found materials. I sold these in independent boutiques in Tampa and Milwaukee.
In my early twenties my mother was suffering with ovarian cancer. One of her most soothing treatments involved packing her belly with red clay that a friend in Georgia would send us. Going through this nightly ritual with her was one of my first experiences handling clay. After she died, I found myself unemployed and alone in Durham, NC, and enrolled in a pottery class. I didn’t have the patience for the wheel, so began hand-building functional and sculptural forms. I ultimately took a job as a studio assistant and learned about glaze mixing and alternative firing techniques. Although I never returned to the wheel, I’ve had mud under my fingernails ever since.
I also come from a family of surgeons, going back three generations, and spent most of my teen years working in my dad’s office. I’m not sure if it is genetic propensity, or the exposure to images and specimens from an early age, but I have always been intuitively drawn to organic forms. They inspire me and appear regularly in my work.
We’d love to hear more about your art. What do you do you do and why and what do you hope others will take away from your work?
I create organic and abstract objects using clay, rubber and found materials. I am generally inspired by the constitution of the material itself. Working intuitively, I experiment with the potential and limitations of whatever media I am using. I push, pull, carve, distort and assemble until a form almost breathes in my hands.
Found objects, discarded by civilization or nature, are irresistible to me. I return from long walks–both on city streets and wooded paths–with bulging pockets. I am fascinated with what we humans and what nature, leaves behind, and I find the process of decay infuses these objects with meaning, and beauty.
Frequently I work in multiples–creating repetitive forms that ultimately become part of one sculpture or greater installation. My sculptures often convey movement and intention. I love dance, and I think I am often working to infuse life, grace and narrative into these static objects. People have found my combination of materials and organic forms provocative, sensual, unsettling, and even funny.
The sterotype of a starving artist scares away many potentially talented artists from pursuing art – any advice or thoughts about how to deal with the financial concerns an aspiring artist might be concerned about?
Without an art degree, I’ve always had to supplement my artistic path with a more professional one. I currently spend half my time as the Director of Communications for a professional training and coaching company. I’m lucky to be able to supplement that with work as a teaching artist. Two days a week, I do short-term visits to local schools and teach classes at health centers that offer arts enrichment. I am also able to devote a couple hours 2-3 times a week working on my own art.
I think it is good to keep a broad perspective about how to support your practice. Nurture the activities (art-making and otherwise) that bring you joy and keep an open mind and be creative about ways you can generate income doing those things. For me it feels natural to juggle several different kinds of activities.
As a teaching artist I am always putting myself in a position of learning something new, both in my program development, and in what I learn from students. This keeps my mind challenged and gives me inspiration when I can get back in the studio.
Do you have any events or exhibitions coming up? Where would one go to see more of your work? How can people support you and your artwork?
I am a member of Chicago Sculpture International, and will have work in their upcoming Biennial, “Design is a Verb!” in August at the Evanston Art Center. In September and October my work will be featured at Munch, a vegan restaurant in Oak Park, and in March 2019 my solo exhibition, “Material Alchemy: Cobbling with Clay and Found Materials” will be at the Jack Olson Gallery at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb.
For the months of October-December I will be the resident artist at the DuPage Children’s Museum, working with museum guests to create an installation of clay and found materials that will later be installed somewhere in the community.
In addition, I am an active member of both Woman Made Gallery and the Oak Park Art League and occasionally have work on exhibit in these galleries, and at Gallery Pink in Oak Park. I post notices of upcoming exhibitions and events on my website, Instagram and Facebook pages.
Contact Info:
- Address: Oak Park, IL
- Website: ginaleerobbins.com
- Instagram: Instagram: @ginaleerobbins
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ginaleerobbins
Image Credit:
Gina Lee Robbins
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