Robert Stanley's Page

Robert Stanley's Friends

If you're an artist, what kind of art do you make?: Digital, Drawing, Installation, Painting, Printmaking

I am...: exhibiting art in the Chicago area and internationally. My works evoke a disjointed world, yet connections between objects are suggested serene enigmas in the chaos of life.

Although born in Florida to an Army Air Corps father who liked to draw and a mother who had won voice competitions, I did not do anything artistic until I became a monk, where arts were introduced to me. After several years, I left the monastery, and began exhibiting in Cincinnati, Ohio, while teaching at the University of Dayton and Earlham College. After I received my Master’s degree, I exhibited around the USA while teaching in Pennsylvania and Illinois. I don’t teach anymore; just make and exhibit art.

About my artwork: "Identity" is crucial, but is seen too narrowly. It is searched for in gender and politics. Identity is not just these things. Every civilization and nearly every individual has sensed and continues to sense something larger. As a civilization comprised of many peoples and struggling with gender and political issues, Americans sense this need, as is seen in rising religiousness and in the religious fervor of politics and causes we subscribe to. We might reference, from our own unique identity on this continent, a resolution to the issue of greater identity. This reference is Emerson.

Emerson, the American Philosopher, showed us a path that combined all elements, even opposites, into a Cosmos, a whole he called Oversoul.

My works reflect Oversoul, as it incorporates the opposites of living. These opposites include the now and the infinite, the ethnic and the universal, the bold and the shy, the joyous and the sad, and the light and the dark. Our identity is huge.

Artists I like: Jasper Johns, Joseph Cornell. Richard Diebenkorn, Sally Mann, and Bill Viola. Equally influential are Heraclitus, E.O. Wilson, Quantum Dynamics, and Basho.

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At 2:39pm on 23rd September 2008, BOIGEOL said…: Thanks for the add.

Richard

At 2:59am on 30th August 2008, Derek said…: I can see you paint these in short, forgotten breathes. It is interesting work.

Best,
Derek

At 10:14pm on 21st June 2008, Robert Stanley said…: ...or, I could just be goofing off about amputation. This is most likely.
If you want more words about my work, you can go to where there's a studio log and lots of other words as well as art.
Meanwhile, I've got to get a face like yours. How cool. Coming and going at the same time.

At 12:34pm on 3rd June 2008, Frank Fu said…: Interesting works!
Please check out my site
cheers,

Frank Fu

At 5:02pm on 29th May 2008, Deirdre A. Fox said…: Thanks for the lovely feedback, Robert. Hope all is well with you. - Deirdre

At 8:54pm on 11th April 2008, Joan Fabian said…: Hi Robert-
No no, your comment is fine by me! I love it actually!
You see, I am interested in what we label as beautiful and high art versus low art forms, like craft. I am originally from Chicago, so my quirky humor comes from the Hairy Who crowd there.
Thanks again!

At 2:09am on 2nd April 2008, Robert Stanley said…: Works for me. "Near" meaning under the Bridge, or abutting Bed-Sty? As for your work, are you SURE you don't do a bit of Jaspers Johns-type visual THINKING?

At 12:46am on 2nd April 2008, Kevin Gilmore said…: thanks robert! my work seems to get a lot of attention. on one hand, my paintings are tethered to a sort of decorative, easy to digest, ideal of beauty, but such beauty can only come from well thought-out color selections and meticulous compositions. when i mentioned "student" of pratt, i was referring subtly to my cheating the $30 entry fee into the armory show by posing as a pratt student. I graduated 10 yrs ago from URI. but i do live right near pratt... close enough right?