2020-06-01_The_Artists_Magazine

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FOR MORE ABOUT THE ARTIST, VISIT

CAROLYNROBLES.COM.

OPPOSITE
Zeus (oil on canvas,
36x24) is primarily
about climate change,
“but it also has to do
with the internal and
external connection,”
says Robles. “The
storm he’s conjuring
in his mind is actually
coming to fruition in
his reality and fi lling
the space with water.
There are many
symbols here that
I hope carry certain
meanings, but I also
like that interpretations
will vary from person
to person.”

Adventures(pencilandgoldleafonpaper,

14x11) began as a straightforward portrait of

a student’s daughter. “When I teach private

lessons,” Robles says, “I draw and paint the

same subject as my student, right by his or

her side, so we can encounter challenges and

questions together and I can show diff erent

techniques for resolving problems.” As the artist

drew this girl, the idea of the coyote and hawk

emerged, “representing strength and breaking

away from the antiquated and limiting con-

vention that girls are simply nice and sweet.”

She liked having the coyote disappear into the

hawk’s wing: “Perhaps a side of us that’s almost

too grounded, too practical, has to sometimes

give way to one full of adventure and hope,

soaring in dreams,” the artist says.

of the time, especially for larger works, I’ll move straight

into color when painting,” Robles says, “or I’ll do a grisaille,

especially for some of the figures for which I want to be

more precise.” Although she loves pastels—which enable

her to create large works quickly and which she’s able to

manipulate well enough to resemble oils—Robles wants to

return to doing more oil painting.

Art history classes tempted her to try gold leaf recently,

which she applied to the drawing Adventures (below) to

make a crescent moon featuring a pattern symbolic of the

sky and stars. “I remember falling in love with illuminated

manuscripts,” says Robles. “I still have in my mind that,

someday, I’m going to do something like that.”

THE NEXT CHAPTER

Technology is the theme Robles wants to explore in her

future work. “We’re almost seeing ourselves as technology,

merging with it in a way that’s limiting our perceptions and

imagination,” she says. “The paintings I have in mind for my

next series are moving in a direction

that’s a little more surreal. Mother-

boards appear in my mind when I start

thinking of ideas for them.”

Robles has wrestled with how much

written explanation should accom-

pany her work when she exhibits it

because, although she doesn’t obsess

over whether viewers will understand

her point, she doesn’t want to be com-

pletely misinterpreted. “I know what

it means to me, and I don’t mind if

viewers get something totally dif-

ferent from it,” she says, noting that

sometimes the viewers offer interpre-

tations that are even more interesting

than what she’d intended. “What

I ultimately want them to realize is

something deeper about who they

really are, how similar we all are and

howconnectedeverythingis.”

Stefanie Laufersweiler is a freelance

writer and editor living in Cincinnati.

More Online!

See Robles’ painting process in stages

at artistsnetwork.com/go/robles-demo.