Do you like the work of Monet, Rauschenberg, Turner? They’re all fabulous artists of course but you only get to view one artist and one style at a time! But what if you could combine them all at one go? That’s what collage allows me to do. I can pull images from  a wide variety of resources and styles, add additional images or textures in acrylic, pencil or ink and create my own vision. A final coat of varnish protects the work and gives it maturity.

I was born in Ireland and travel extensively.  This, combined with my background in architecture and graphics, is what influences my art the most.  I love ambiguity and the juxtapositioning of objects and images, many bearing little if any relationship to each other. I love seeing text on images – Chinese, Arabic, Sanskrit – none of which I can read. With my own  personal twist I often include words or sayings in Irish in my work with the meaning reflected in the title of the piece in English. Working on small panels makes me focus my ideas and to ruthlessly eliminate material which does not work. My subject matter usually deals with the human emotions of love, fear, nostalgia, etc. – but also with the issues of the day – war, peace and justice.

I use wood panels as they are strong but light and can easily be sanded down to start from scratch when things go wrong – which happens rather a lot.

Whereas I am always engaged with more complex bodies of work that often take months, if not years, to come to formal fruition, these pictures, these squares, they are always constant, and they are right here and right now.

The origin of this group of pictures can be traced back a number of years ago to an image I made of myself in my underwear with a large coffee filter on my head, holes cut out for eyes. This image was the start of many playful performative portrait sessions for me. Over time, what was once a practice of using exclusively my image in these pictures has now expanded in scope to include various friends and people I meet in the course of my journeys.

This work has become a collaborative practice of “making” pictures with others, versus the less collaborative “taking” pictures of others. I think of the pictures as part of a collection that I can always add pieces to, and get excited in the moment when I’m working on a completely different and unrelated project and I realize I’ve made one of these squares, something to add to the constantly evolving collection of performative portraits.

The portraits themselves happen quickly, and are often unrehearsed, a result of inviting friends over for breakfast or dinner, or from meeting someone who seems to be equally interested in my beard as they are my unusual camera and photographic techniques. An explanation of my practice usually includes me asking, “Will you make a picture with me?” Most people usually agree.

Although possibly lacking a period at the end of the sentence they create, these images should be viewed as no less intentional than anything else I create. They are quite possibly more intentional and hold more promise because they don’t have a permanent home in a more formal body of work. They are nomadic and wandering, but always contain the same motivations and goals. 

I make colorful mixed media paintings. The subjects vary from urban scenes to landscapes. I try to show a reality that might not be obvious but uses a combination of elements that are surprising.

I want to make an emotional connection with the viewer that will captivate your imagination, draw you into the story, and be memorable.

After many years as a scriptwriter and director, I began channeling my creative energies into my love of sculpture.  In doing so, I drew from my own subconscious and my interest in the worlds of archetypes, myths, and rituals to create both abstract and figurative pieces.  My figurative sculptures are not based on models, photographs, or actual persons.  Instead, like my abstract work, they arise from memory, imagination, my inner world, and a spontaneous interaction with a variety of materials. 

My primary materials are terra cotta and cement, although I frequently employ wood and various metals as well.  The forms created from these materials are typically covered with a rich textual surface that is often aged or distressed to convey an emotion and a connection that transcend time and culture to bring artist and viewer into a shared inner space.

My work has been described as elegant, yet also earthy and powerful.  It is imbued with a mythic, numinous, and archetypal awareness that comes directly from my process of creation.  My psychological and emotional state while I’m working are also strongly reflected in the sculptures.  Some express a calm, almost beatific sensibility.  Others display extreme disturbance and anguish.  Generally, it is only upon completion of an individual sculpture, or often a series of sculptures, that I’m able to tease out the meaning and significance for me personally.

However, regardless of the emotional impact, I seek a connection with the viewer.  Whether figurative or abstract, my ultimate goal is to have the viewer feel a sense of familiarity with the work...a sense of knowing, of understanding.  I believe this feeling of déjà vu arises from both a collective unconscious and a mystical center we all share.

I love motorcycles. Especially the Indian made Royal Enfield Bullet. My dad used to own one when I was growing up. He would seat me on the fuel tank in front of him and drop me to nursery school every morning on his way to work. Every evening, I waited by the window for the thunderous sound of his motorcycle that I could single out from scores of others.

The Royal Enfield is the most popular brand in India. It moves the whole country, from the milkman to the rich kid, the tourist to the Indian Police and Army. City kids deck them with leather trims and custom fittings while the farmer outfits it with threshing equipment. However, I am a fan of the stock model and in this series I focus on it's classic vintage silhouette. I primarily work with acrylic paints and mediums on canvas. But in this series I have used other mediums and techniques such as ink, textural mediums and screenprinting.

I am an artist, a traveler, a writer and a teacher.

I engage in the process of visually exploring and describing my experiences as a woman living in an urban culture in the 21st century.  I am a mother and grandmother and all of my experience instructs my practice.

The human figure and nature are central to my work.   I question what is familiar and find nuances buried in the layers of the everyday.

Text is an important component, and most every piece has a story or text beneath and through the work.  Building layers, sometimes placing familiar imagery in context of a new environment, the voice of my work is evident in the line and space that becomes a new language within the work.

Painting, drawing and taking photographs is a form of discovery for me.  

Bio

Robbin Milne is a California painter and studio artist.

She is associated ArtsBenicia, Oakland ProArts, San Francisco and Berkeley communities.

She has exhibited her work in the Bay Area 
during the past 15 years in solo as well as 
group shows such as the Oakland ProArts 
Annual Open Studios, Arts Benicia Auction, 
Arts Benicia Open Studios.

Robbin has also been seen in other venues 
including the Benicia Library Art Gallery, 
Orinda Art Gallery, Bedford Art Gallery, 
Sebastopol Arts Center and other venues in 
the area.  

Her work is in Bay Area private collections:  In 
Napa and the South Bay areas, including 
Filoso/Obrien of Oakland and the Heydlers of 
Danville, now in Germany.  Collectors abroad 
include Canada, France and Italy and Turkey.  

Ms. Milne received the Ralph DuCasse Award 
for Academic Excellence in Studio Arts, and 
completed her BA in Studio Art at Mills College,
Oakland California.

She was born in Lake Charles, Louisiana in 
1957.

She continues to offer art instruction and 
appreciation, and has worked in the National 
Institute of Arts and Disabilities with adults.

I collect images and color stories.  Themes emerge and these give way to the next body of work.

I choose subjects for their sense of design and once the process is underway, it shifts toward something improvised.

My background is in textiles and illustration and I have always been curious to know how structural problems are solved. 

The purpose of my work is solely in its rendering so, rather than state its meaning, I invite the viewer's intepretation.

Metamorphic Ocean Art

We can only begin to fully comprehend and truly experience the world around us as we actively attempt to face its entirety in every given moment, while adjusting ourselves perpetually to its growth.  Metamorphic Functional and Figurative Ocean Sculptures (Metamorphic Ocean Art) is a way for us to approach the expansive breathing soul of our planet by incorporating its living spirit into our material proximity, thus smearing the line between the dynamic nature outside and our constrictive, man-made dwellings.  

In tradition with Nature Art, these pieces use ocean life as the backbone building material.  And although each item partly dries in the absence of ocean water, it, none the less, retains its original agility.  Constantly changing its shape and properties in the context of its surrounding environment—or metamorphosing, it may be regarded as another living part of it. 

Through their evocative shapes and arrangements, these figurines are a life form with a distinctive soul and spirit.  Often surrealistic in their nature, they may resemble predatory creatures with fantastical features.  To surround oneself with their likeness is to embrace the dangers of the real world and accept the “original sin” of humanity—as first proposed by the Romantics and Symbolists at the turn of last century—thereby better appreciating the beauty and romance of life.

Arts and Crafts proponents rightly pointed out that we, as humans, may desire to incorporate nature within our immediate environment to better suit our inner instincts regarding the comfort of a living space.  Metamorphic Ocean Art revives this call amid the modern awareness of the importance of the natural environment.  With their evocative forms, “breathable” material and oceanic origins, these objects incorporate global life and eternal vision into the everyday functions and décor that we touch in the given moment, everyday.

In my art work, both the prints and the sculpture, I capture the flow or motion of the object. Nature is my inspiration, although I have been including portraites in my recent work. Most of my work is an abstraction of a landscape or object in a landscape.  I have also been working with making paper and using it to create sculptures and art pieces.

I love to explore with paint, drawings, and collage in a mixed media way, usually inspired by the figure and everyday life.  Using collected ephemera, old and new, along with figure drawings, water media, or oil paint, stirred up in a mixed media, until it works for me.  I'm influenced by expressionism and surrealism, landing somewhere between realism and abstraction.  Texture, hand of the artist, color, and mysterey interest me.

I hope the viewer engages their imagination while looking at my paintings.

Currently my paintings are exhibited in the Los Gatos Museums Gallery, andThe CottonWorks

 in Los Gatos Calif.