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 healing from life’s deepest heartbreaks and I want to share them with you.

BIO

Before finishing a BFA degree from Oregon College of Art and Craft as a Ford Restart Scholar, Beth I. Robinson was a certified picture framer and paper restorer for 14 years. In 2007, she was awarded an opportunity with the University of Georgia to live and travel through Italy studying the conservation of books and art as a grief and conflict dispute resolution tool during the Renaissance. Her artwork on grief has been celebrated in the public view for over 15 years in both the United States and Europe. Showing this artwork led to a master’s program at the University of Oregon Law School in Conflict and Dispute Resolution and then working as a private practice mediator, facilitator, and conflict/grief coach. She works with grievers and their companions to find alternate ways of expressing grief during disputes. Since graduating law school and finishing her training as an Advanced Grief Recovery Specialist, she has facilitated over 300 restorative justice groups for youth offenders and their caregivers, Courageous Kids and their caregivers, sexual assault survivors, and several one-on-one clients. In 2017, she presented a Tedx talk on collage, generational grief, and reconciliation. She cares for cultural property as a paper conservator and museum technician for the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art in Eugene, Oregon, on the University of Oregon campus. She is continually restoring a Chandler and Price Letterpress machine and a member of Pacific Northwest Collage Collective.

ARTIST CONTACT

[click to email]
www.robinpress.com

IMAGES