Beth I Robinson

Beth I. Robinson
Lorane, Oregon, USA

STATEMENT

By creating collages, I explore grief through found objects and cut edges. Often in my work, fragments, ghosts of materials, soft pencil lines, or patterns can be seen. Capturing these momentary voices accentuates the missing, forgotten, or things often left unspoken beneath the surface of loss. At eight years old, my grandfather died. The adults around me were heartbroken. In their awkwardness, they gave me glue, magazines, and adult-size scissors. I was fully present in those sobering moments of youthful innocence about death and refused to lose my sense of wonder. This art practice cultivated an outlet for the unique conflict loss prompts.

Over a five-year period starting in 2005, my remaining grandparents, my father, youngest brother, several uncles, and my mother died. Bereavement made me focus on creating more artwork, then showing in public spaces. People continually reach out to me during my art shows, confused by their experiences with loss and not finding relief. Art history, my artist practice, and the Grief Recovery Method have provided me with tools to work through my own losses. These tools are a powerful action-based approach to heal from life’s deepest heartbreaks, and I want to share them with you.

BIO

Beth I. Robinson earned her BFA from the Oregon College of Art and Craft as a Ford Restart Scholar, after spending 14 years as a certified picture framer and paper restorer. In 2007, she traveled through Italy with the University of Georgia, studying book and art conservation and its role in addressing grief and conflict during the Renaissance.

For more than 15 years, her artwork on grief has been exhibited across the United States and Europe. Sharing this work led her to pursue a master’s degree in Conflict and Dispute Resolution at the University of Oregon School of Law, followed by private practice as a mediator, facilitator, and conflict and grief coach. She supports grievers and their companions in finding new ways to express loss within conflict.

Since completing law school and training as an Advanced Grief Recovery Specialist, she has facilitated more than 300 restorative justice groups for youth offenders and caregivers, Courageous Kids families, sexual assault survivors, and individual clients. In 2017, she delivered a TEDx talk on collage, generational grief, and reconciliation.

She continues to care for cultural property as a paper conservator and museum technician at the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art in Eugene, Oregon. She is also restoring a Chandler & Price letterpress and is an active member of the Pacific Northwest Collage Collective.

ARTIST CONTACT

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IMAGES