Art as a career arrived later for me, many years after college and a working life that was broad and deep. By birthplace, I’m French - born to American military parents stationed overseas. I owe my diverse interests to my parents: they believed in getting to know as much of a new culture as possible and the result was a habit of exploring and engaging in new things.
I started college to be a photographer, but like many young adults experiencing independence for the first time, that goal took flight and was replaced several times before graduating as a marine biologist. My ensuing work path was anything but straight: research scientist, commercial diver, cabinetmaker, web designer, teacher, landscape architect…to name a few. Notably, at each step a door opened to a new opportunity somewhere along the way and I stepped through. What college really prepared me for was applying discipline and a mind open to infinite possibilities.
As family life evolved, I spent increasingly more free time creating - photography, sketching, painting, digital art; whatever piqued my curiosity. I got involved in weekly illustration challenges and started considering the idea I could take my skills beyond simply a hobby, and that’s as far as it went for a couple years.
The unexpected death of a very close friend shook my roots and frankly it made me hold the proverbial mirror to my life. I started asking questions: what’s truly important in my life? what do I want to be remembered for? life’s short - why am I wasting it doing unsatisfying and unappreciated work at a job?
Coincidentally, my daughter approached me about drawing the illustrations for a children's book she had written about a little girl and a horse. “ I don’t know,” I told her, “…maybe.” That Christmas, I surprised her with an illustrated manuscript. It was my wake-up moment: I realized how much connecting to people emotionally through my art meant to me. I committed myself to somehow making things happen with my art.
Initially, I floundered - I had no real direction and succumbed to the distractions of the myriad possibilities in genres, mediums, styles, and techniques. My art was mediocre, and I realized I was going nowhere after a while of this approach. I needed a change - fast! A brutally honest self-assessment determined that I needed outside help.
Art school was out of the question - time and money were not in the cards. So in 2017, I sought out mentors - creative and business-minded people I respected. I committed to doing what they advised. By the end of 2020, I was creating bodies of work that excited me, had honed my social media skills, and was experiencing increased recognition of my work through acceptance in shows and exhibitions.
My work has become more introspective & humanistic: I’m increasingly curious to explore the human condition and what drives us socially.
I respond to what is happening around me environmentally and socially - painting what I feel. I tend toward positive (because I think we need to have more of that outlook than news outlets would have you believe) - but it’s not always. When a person can realize through my own example that it’s never too late to learn - to stretch - and my work touches them in some deep way, then I count that as the best sort of success. If you resonate with this outlook and philosophy, then I believe you’ll connect with my art.
I invite you to be part of my journey. Visit my website links, follow me on Instagram, subscribe to my newsletter - but most important of all: recognize that art is a gift that enriches the connections of our shared humanity.
Peace and gratitude, Rob