Interview with artist Robyn Horn
For nearly four decades Robyn Horn has been transforming static pieces of wood into expressive works of art. She is a nationally and internationally recognized artist and her works are in collections at the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the White House Collection of American Crafts, and the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. In 2008, Robyn was named an Arkansas Living Treasure by the Arkansas Arts Council for her work as a wood sculptor and her leadership in promoting the visual arts. Her works can be found at Blue Spiral 1 gallery in Asheville, North Carolina, Justus Fine Art Gallery in Hot Springs, Arkansas, and at her website, robynhorn.com.
AAS: I first met you at an Arkansas Arts Center event that you and your husband John hosted in your home in 2018. You have been a wonderful supporter of the arts and artists in Arkansas and I thank you for that. I understand that you were born in Fort Smith, Arkansas and grew up in an artist family. How did your childhood shape your love of art and love of creating art?
RH: John and I love artists and the impact that the arts can have on people. We are excited about the new facility that the Arkansas Arts Center is building. We hope it will be a place where everyone that is interested in the arts or learning about the arts can gather. They will be offering classes in clay, painting, wood, and lots more with a significant improvement on the spaces where kids and adults can make things. I have heard that they have many exquisite exhibits planned and I look forward to seeing them.
My mother and my sister are painters. Even though my mother was always working on some art project when I was a kid, I was more interested in music and was in a couple of rock bands during high school. I never took an art course or did any art projects during that time, I just observed my mother making things. When I went to college at Hendrix, I decided that being an art major would be the easiest way to graduate, so that is what I chose for my major. As it turned out, it was one of the best things to happen to me.
AAS: You are a graduate of Hendrix College in Fine Arts and were a painter and photographer. Would you talk about that time and how you eventually began working with wood?
RH: I graduated with a degree in art from Hendrix and went to work for a typesetting company in Little Rock. It was my first opportunity to see graphic arts in a commercial setting. After that I joined the Department of Parks and Tourism and eventually became their Chief Photographer. I learned a lot about photography and darkroom work during those years. During that time, my brother-in-law, Sam Horn, introduced me to the wood lathe, a tool that makes a block of wood round. It was the beginning of my artistic career in wood, something that took a long time to evolve, but which put me on track to finding my aesthetic and to improving my skills as an artist. Eventually I grew tired of the round format that the lathe produces and I began to do more carving on my sculptures.
Compromised Structure, Cocobolo, 27” x 12” x 5”
AAS: I think Compromised Structure is beautiful example of your use of negative space and tension.
RH: Compromised Structure is a good example of my Slipping Stone Series. This series had two visual inspirations: Nude Descending a Staircase, a painting by Marcel Duchamp, and a stone I found that had fissures and cracks in it that looked like it was going to break apart. I started doing sketches, drawing blocks of wood that would look like they were precarious but stable. I usually work in series, designing pieces that fit within a framework of a common form or theme. It helps to be able to vary the way works are made within a single shape, changing small aspects of them as you go along. This work is made from Cocobolo wood, a rosewood from Central American. It is one of those woods that is so beautiful it can sometimes be intimidating and limit your design when you are working with it. It is also difficult to make a bad piece with it, but I find that if you let the wood overwhelm the work, it is never as successful as if you impose your will on the end result. The components of this sculpture are all carved from a solid block of wood and are made to look like they are assembled. By cutting one of the pieces out and laying it apart from the main sculpture, I have suggested that it has fallen out of the precariously assembled piece when in fact the piece was intentionally removed. Making things appear one way when they are another is something that appeals to me with both my painting and my sculpture. This piece has quite a lot of sapwood, the lighter coloring that grows on the outside of the tree, and gives the wood even more contrast and interest.
AAS: What is the source of the exotic woods you use?
Robyn in her home sculpture garden (photo courtesy of CHROMA).
RH: I have ordered wood from several companies in California for many years. Some of these places are still in business, and some are not. The challenge for me is to get material that is thick enough for me to use. Many times the wood is cut into furniture thickness (usually 1” or 2”) and that does not work with the sculptures I make. Buying wood online is helpful because you can see the size and shape of the pieces you are considering. I love woods from Australia such as Jarrah burl and Coolibah burl because they have beautiful coloring, but many woods that are local have nice figure and are interesting to use also. There are many businesses that import woods from around the world, and they are available online.
AAS: I can imagine friends dropping off large pieces of wood they find out in the woods ‘in case you might want to do something with this’. Does that ever happen? And do you do commissions?
RH: I have calls from friends frequently asking if I would be interested in a section of a tree that came from their yard. I usually have enough wood that I am not interested, and there are only a few local woods that I use that I like such as sycamore, maple and locust. It takes quite a large tree in diameter for me to be interested as the center of a tree will usually split and can’t be used. That’s not always the case, but generally you can only use half the tree so the size needs to be pretty large. I try to avoid commissions because they are usually looking for something that I don’t normally want to make, but it depends on what they want and whether or not I want to try and make it.
AAS: Your sculptures in wood are iconic, of course, but in the last decade or so you began painting more and more. Sculpturing is a process of removal or shaping of material whereas your paintings are an application of materials. Talk about those two opposite processes and what they mean to you.
RH: The processes used with painting and carving are truly the opposite, one additive (painting) and one subtractive (sculpture). It is much easier to paint over something that I don’t like than to add wood back to a block I have carved away. With the sculpture and carving, I have to be sure of the design before I start cutting. Sometimes there are adjustments made, but the basic design is already finalized before I start cutting. With the paintings, I can explore more and try things that might or might not work. It is also easier to discard a canvas than a block of wood. I believe this is why my painting has evolved much faster and more easily than my sculpture did. In addition to that, I had already developed an aesthetic with my sculpture, so I knew more what I wanted to happen with the paintings. I began the drawings and paintings in 2005, using materials such as acrylics, charcoal, adding wire, metal pieces and rust. The progression of the paintings has been achieved much more quickly than that of the sculptures which I began in 1989.
In Our Time Alone, acrylics, rust, charcoal on canvas, 60” x 48”
AAS: Your painting, In Our Time Alone is just gorgeous. It has wonderful depth and mood. Talk about how that painting came about?
RH: In Our Time Alone is named for a line in a James Taylor song. Time is something I have been considering more and more lately. The deep layers in this painting take time to accomplish, and indicate that the surface has been there a while. I seem to have a comfortable color palette of browns and creams, the colors of wood. I have worked to try and branch out from that to include other colors. Rust is a favorite of mine, so rust colors show up frequently. The surface of this painting is reminiscent of a deteriorating surface, one that time has not necessarily been kind to. It seems that nature easily makes incredibly interesting surfaces like lichen, moss, fungi and foliage among others, given enough time. This work appears to have aged and has interesting places everywhere while having an overall interesting composition.
AAS: Your studio, if that is even the right way to describe it, is amazing and the grounds around your home are a sculpture museum. It must be a fun and inspirational place to create.
Robyn in her studio (photo courtesy of Dana Moore).
RH: I am very lucky to have a large studio and to have a place to store my wood until I can use it. Wood will rot if it gets wet then dry over and over again, so having it inside is very helpful and keeps it safe until I can find a use for it. That is another reason to take a class at the Arkansas Arts Center when it opens again, because they will have terrific studios you can work in. I have seen changes in my work due to getting a new piece of equipment or a larger or better tool. Having a good place to work is essential.
AAS: Who are some of the sculptors and painters you admire and look to for inspiration?
RH: I spend a lot of time looking at art, both sculpture and paintings. I think it’s very beneficial to look at work that interests me, take portions of these images as inspiration, and add them to what I’m already doing. Early in my career, I had several sculptors who were major influences on my work. Artists such as Barbara Hepworth, David Nash, Isamu Noguchi and Fletcher Benton were all using geometry, line, volume and surface to make their work. As I mentioned earlier, Marcel DuChamp’s painting Nude Descending A Staircase is such a magnificent piece of geometry channeling movement, and the muted colors he used were perfect to convey his message of transforming the figure into components and giving them motion. The fact that he called it a “nude” caused a stir with the conservative art community in the early 20th century. He was always one to stretch the boundaries and stir people up. Joan Mitchell, Jay DeFeo, Richard Diebenkorn, Gerhard Richter and many of the cubist artists have always been of interest to me when it comes to painting. I love reading biographies about artists. They usually lead interesting lives, even though they generally struggled to make a living.
“Many of the artists and curators who I met along the way have become truly good friends and I value the experience and their friendships.”
AAS: Would you talk about the importance of established artists supporting and mentoring young artists?
RH: I have always been one to work alone in my studio. I have never been a teacher or felt that I should impart my knowledge to another artist. In 2011, I met Sandra Sell who was finishing up her degree in art at UALR and we hit it off as artists, having a lot of similar interests and approaches. Sandi was wanting to learn to carve wood, and already had many of the skills that have helped her master making wood sculpture. When I began working on a couple of ten foot tall sculptures, she was willing to help me with the most physically difficult cutting parts with chainsaws, and I value her help and her opinion as an artist. She is a talented teacher, and her work is evolving at a quick pace, securing her place in the region as a major artist. When she went to Penland School in North Carolina to teach a class in carving, I went too and enjoyed working one on one with the young artists who were taking her class. I would never want to be a teacher or go any further with it than just talking through projects or recommending an approach to someone, but I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. Penland School is an amazing place along with Arrowmont School in Tennessee. We have been involved with both of them taking classes, visiting and enjoying being around all levels of artists in many media. John has taught letterpress printing at Penland, and I love to go when he teaches. It’s such an inspirational place.
AAS: You were named an Arkansas Living Treasure in 2008. What have been some other highlights of your career?
The Sculpture of Robyn Horn, The University of Arkansas Press, 2018
RH: I was very pleased to show my work with George Dombek a few years ago at his studio near Fayetteville. He asked me to exhibit work at his fall studio openings and was very helpful in finding collectors from Northwest Arkansas to take interest in my work. George suggested to me that I speak to the University of Arkansas Press in Fayetteville about putting together a book about my sculpture. I did that and in 2018, they published a hardback, full color book of my work, The Sculpture of Robyn Horn. I am very pleased with the results. It is a reassuring thing to have my work documented after 35 years of working to develop a significant body of sculpture.
AAS: Your works are in many, many private and corporate collections and in museums such as the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the White House Collection of American Crafts and Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. The acceptance of your work must be very gratifying.
RH: The most reassuring thing to an artist is for a work of theirs to be included in a major museum’s permanent collection. I have been very fortunate in my career to have been working during a time when “wood art” had a following and when many passionate collectors were buying work that was turned or carved. At conferences and exhibitions, curators would come and meet the artists and talk to them about their work. I was included in these events and felt that my work was unique and crafted well enough for it to be considered by these knowledgeable advocates. Many of the artists and curators who I met along the way have become truly good friends and I value the experience and their friendships. In addition to that, I have had more reaction from people when they realize my work resides at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art than anything else in my career.
AAS: You really are looked up to as an Arkansas arts stateswoman. How do you see the current state and future of fine art in Arkansas?
RH: I think art is an important part of our culture, and that there are artists who will always be making work, simply because they can’t do otherwise. Last year, the people from Artspace in Minneapolis were in town, and they plan to build an artist community in the Little Rock/North Little Rock area. I think having some place where artists can live in proximity with each other, and further their joint causes and exhibit their work will only increase their opportunities. I know that there are several galleries nearby that are good at choosing which artists to represent and who are developing their client bases in order to help artists sell work. I am very lucky to have work at Justus Fine Art Gallery in Hot Springs. Finding a good gallery is a key issue and one that can further a career. There are many well established artists in Arkansas that are working away in their studios, and as long as they continue to do that, Arkansas has a good chance of producing artists that will be successful at what they do.
