Today we’d like to introduce you to Robin Przybysz.
Every artist has a unique story. Can you briefly walk us through yours?
I knew I wanted to be an artist since I was seven. My dad dabbled in art and went to art school for a year or two, but wanted to teach his four children how to draw and paint. He used to bring in wild flowers from the garden and set up a still-life for us to use. I was hooked! I still have the painting I did at age seven when I first knew I wanted to be an artist. Being the youngest of four children with quite an age gap, I ended up being alone quite a bit so I would entertain myself by making puppets out of fabric, dolls out of wooden spools and yarn, and interior spaces for my Barbie’s to live. I was fortunate to grow up in an era where art was taught in grammar, middle and high school. I studied and created art throughout my whole life. In undergrad, I double majored in fine arts and knowing I needed a day job to support my artistic habit, I also earned my art education degree. I have been teaching fine arts for over three decades now. Being an art teacher has fed my creativity and has allowed me to continue my own art practice in Fiber and Textile sculpture and installation work. It was a life-long goal of mine to return to school and attain my M.F.A. degree, which I did in 2016.
Please tell us about your art.
From a young age, I have always been drawn to the tactile quality that fiber art/craft has had to offer: wood, metal, fiber, and paper have often been materials that appear in my art. My work stems from a personal narrative and engages conversation about the feminine: the experiences of womanhood and transformation embodied by the female form. Although I concentrate on the feminine and am interested in having an audience for women’s health, mind and body, I also am focused on the regenerative process one may take in reawakening themselves into new patterns of life. This is revealed through my figurative sculptures in linen, plaster casts, and wood silhouettes of a woman’s body.
We all have come from the womb and our junctures of growth are uniquely ours within the environmental circumstances that surround us. I wish for my audience to experience a visceral connection, one of strength and perseverance, when viewing the signs, symbols, and images of my art; which hold a universal experience inside the psychological and physiological stages of life. I feel my work speaks of renewal, declares hope, with persistence and determination.
Given everything that is going on in the world today, do you think the role of artists has changed? How do local, national or international events and issues affect your art?
Art in the contemporary society is much the same as in any generation that came before. We artists have a responsibility to have a voice and make it heard. Art should inspire, antagonize, create conversation, and often controversy to have people think. Art should be interactive and thought provoking. Artists create on many different levels: personal narratives, social commentaries, and political agendas to name a few. Art expresses so much more than what is said and is a universal language that all are able to understand. How can life around us not affect our art?
My personal role as an artist is to have a voice for women. My current body of work is showing strong powerful women who have been through a traumatic experience either physically, mentally, emotionally or spiritually in their lives and now they are inspirational figures in their communities and beyond that make a difference in the life of others.
How or where can people see your work? How can people support your work?
Currently, I am taking time to create and gearing up for a month-long artist residency in Carrizozo NM. I welcome visitors to come to my studio: 2151 Logan Ave. Studio J, in Barrio Logan. My websites will show my exhibition history: www.artintexture.com and www.robinprzybysz.com
Contact Info:
- Website: artintexture.com and robinprzybysz.com
- Phone: 760-274-5671
- Email: artintexture@gmail.com
- Instagram: artintexture
- Facebook: artintexture and Robin Przybysz
Image Credit:
Mitch Dong photographer
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