2021 Faculty Art Exhibition - Donna Robinson
DONNA ROPP ROBINSON
Barium and Basalt. Block and Bowls, 2018
Clay and Glass
Installation: 8 x 5 x 2 inches
Primary Process: Blocks
Porcelain and Glass
Installation: 5 x 2 x 3 inches
Blocks and Bowls Persimmons, 2018
Porcelain and Stoneware Clay
10 x 7.5 x 6.5 inches
My most recent work examines ideas of exploration and history within the identity
of a person, a place or an object. They reference tangible earth/land masses supporting
ideas of current modernity. Blocks. Bowls. Suggestive of modern structures - buildings
and at the same time are made with archaeological findings in mind. Bowls represent
serving vessels that contain tiny experiments or explorations. Sometimes full of cast
objects – representing bounty and excess. By focusing on primary processes that date
back many thousands of years, I am exploring volume and balance using essential methods
of form making as building blocks. The historical lens both physically and psychologically
informs the process and the product responds, stretching clay vessels to be voluptuous
and teetering precariously on a blocky base. This tension that occurs between the
vessel and the base, between the view into time and the connection through time –
creates a moment of anticipation and a simultaneous suspension. Inspired equally by
geologic formations and anamorphic / biological growths I am working with the material
in its most plastic state while playing with its reference to Natural Science.
Donna Ropp Robinson was born in Portland, Oregon and currently lives and works in
Los Angeles, California. In 2000, she earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Ceramics from
the Kansas City Art Institute. Afterwards studying glass at the Pilchuck Glass School
in Washington founded by Dale Chihuly and then spending two years as Artist-in-Residence
at Red Star Studios – now part of The Belger Arts Center in Kansas City. Her graduate
studies include MFA courses at the University of Hawaii, and she earned her Master
of Arts at California State University, San Bernardino in May of 2011. Her professional
career has included three years as a Project Manager for the Peabody Award winning Craft in America PBS series and eight years as the full-time Laboratory Technician
for the Ceramics Department at Mt San Antonio College. Since receiving her masters
degree she has been an adjunct professor and has taught ceramics at California State
University Fullerton, Cerritos College, Los Angeles Valley College and Rio Hondo College.
As a studio artist she has been featured in The New York Times and Craft in America,
her porcelain and glasswork also appear in the collection of the Ceramic Institute
in Jingdezhen, China and the Ken Ferguson Collection at the Kansas City Art Institute.
Locally, she has shown her work at Chime & Co, Freehand Gallery and Robert V. Fullerton
Art Museum. Recently, her work has appeared at Marin Artists Society and Gandee Gallery
in New York.
Donna Ropp Robinson began teaching at Cerritos College in 2016, including ART150 (Introduction to Ceramics) and ART298(Directed Studies).
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