Robin Davisson
Robin Davisson started her professional life as a biomedical scientist in the field of molecular physiology. Her work over nearly three decades contributed in major ways to our understanding of the control of the circulation in health and disease, relevant to disorders as varied as high blood pressure, heart failure and obesity. Dr. Davisson was honored with many major national and international awards by her scientific peers and was an endowed professor at Cornell University.
Throughout this award-winning career, Robin’s passionate avocation was fiber art. Eventually, the pull of art was irresistible and Robin decided to close her research laboratories to devote her efforts completely to abstract painting. She is an alumna of multiple programs at The Penland School as well as numerous other online and in-person art courses. Robin’s lyrical, process-driven work is rooted in eclectic curiosity and the material surprises she discovers working with her finely-developed visual vocabulary.
ARTIST STATEMENT
KAIROS: The ancient Greek’s word for moments where time seems to stand still, measured only by a feeling that things are just right, that everything is possible. My body of work is a celebration of kairos.
Rooted in relentless and eclectic curiosity, scientific training, and a love for the visceral qualities of the materials themselves, my work seeks to create knowledge in visual form. Like my science, I want each painting to teach something that is not already known. Each piece begins as an experiment, whether with bold gestural marks, paint poured from above, abundant swipes, or flooded pools of pigment coaxed by gravity. As material surprises emerge, layers build and the distinctive identity of the painting begins to reveal itself, I then use hypothesis-driven approaches and critical thinking to carefully balance value, design, color, and line. But then audaciousness returns and so it goes, over and over again.
The energy is always oscillating between abandon and restraint, until it comes to rest in kairos.