abundance of life that is ours. We need those who are always pointing to a better way. And it’s no surprise that Kevin is one of those people.
His favorite sculpture, after all, is, “the sculpture that is about to become a reality,” to quote the January 2014 Kevin Robb Studios Newsletter. What speaks more of a hope than the constant turning towards a new creation? Or of joy than the ever appreciative eye, taking in all the world and transforming it into beautiful things?
If you ask any type of artist, they will tell you that the finished product is never exactly what they envisioned when they started creating. They will tell you that you can’t force anything, that you will completely ruin the art if you do. Creativity is not just making something from nothing, but being flexible enough to adapt your plans to unforeseen problems that arise. Sometimes the greatest works of art are created when things take an unexpected twist.
“How do you solve a problem like Maria? How do you hold a moonbeam in your hand?”
In Kevin’s sculpture three swaths of grey flecked bronze, two floating and one anchored, capture the moon. They could be clouds closing in on this orb of reflecting light to hide its magnificence or firmer bars clamping down on this moving ball to hold it in place. But these jailers seem to have a movement of their own, their sculpted shapes reminiscent of undulating waves.
So it was only natural that they should try out Kevin Robb’s sculpture “Chop Sticks,” on display as part of the Unbound: Sculpture in the Field exhibit at the Arvada Center. And, apparently they spent quite some time on this strange stainless steel tree, as evidenced by the large amount of droppings coating the creation. Thanks are in order to a personal friend that lives close by for taking it upon herself to clean off such additions to Kevin’s art.
But then, don’t we stop to think and enjoy the view when we find a good perch, ourselves? The adventurous young climber tests out limbs until he makes it to the top and enjoys a victorious surveillance of his new realm, and the unhurried hiker looks for a place to rest and listen to the wind in the leaves, or, the whispers of the heart.
This last fall we had the opportunity to install a 12 foot stainless steel contemporary sculpture in the center courtyard of the Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center’s Comprehensive Cancer Center. The patients and visitors can view it from walking around it in the courtyard or from their rooms looking down upon it. It is our hope that, if only for a moment, this sculpture takes their minds off the horrors of cancer.
“Art is the most intense mode of individualism that the world has known.” Oscar Wilde
