Author: Deborah Robin
Published: Oct. 25, 2024
Specializing in modern and contemporary art, Dr. Robin devoted over a decade to volunteering as a Docent at the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art (SMoCA) and enjoyed helping visitors connect with and appreciate the exhibitions. Some of the classes she has taught include Outsider Art, Graffiti Art, “Picasso, Matisse and the Steins: The Start of Modern Art”, and the very popular “The Impossible Choice: The bitter painting contest between rivals Leonardo and Michelangelo”
Beyond the walls of the classroom and museum, Deborah finds joy in creating ceramic art and nurturing her cacti garden. Three types of her original works are featured in the gift shop at SMoCA.
Deborah started making ceramic “Face Planters” during Covid. “Their facial expressions were a way for me to convey my own emotions of fear, loneliness, and occasional joy. I'm still making them but now they are more humorous.”
Her wearable art earrings “provide an opportunity to create miniature artworks influenced by my favorite Modern Art movements.”
The gorgeous Nerikomi bowls and trays pictured with the earrings are “an exercise in patience and flexibility because the process takes an excessively long time and when the items finally come out of the kiln, they always look different than I expect. Nerikomi is a decorative process established in Japan that involves hand mixing pigments into wet clay, stacking the colored clay, and then slicing through the cross section to reveal a patterned slab, which is molded into the desired shape.”
Student Endorsement: I must have taken over 15 of Dr. Robin’s classes! I discovered her in 2020 after my volunteer gig at Phoenix Art Museum dissolved when the museum closed due to the pandemic. Craving the opportunity to explore the world through art as I did in the museum, I turned to Dr. Robin’s classes - and was hooked!-----Aimee Shramko
Look for her two-part course Art of the Now: Decoding Contemporary Art in Spring 2025, which will include a trip to the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art (SMoCA),
