“I always loved getting lost. I used to ride my bicycle into a nearby neighborhood where I didn’t know the streets well and meander around discovering new terrain until I felt like I was going to explode with overwhelming panic. Once that happened, I would frantically try to navigate a road that would take me across Rosedale Road, into the safety and comfort of my familiar streets. Years later, I discovered a similar sense of abandon from an abstract design project. In a high school art class, the assignment was to create abstract shapes using watercolors. We then added black ink lines, dots, and marks to enhance them. The excitement of color touching wet paper and exploding in unexpected directions set my heart fluttering. I waited patiently for the water to dry so I could add black ink details. The painting process was about exploring the journey into the unknown. While red and yellow created an electric ball of orange, I could then add highlights to enhance its vibrancy and black ink to delineate its form. Although that painting is long gone, spontaneous painting has been the foundation in my art making. I am not as daring physically (can’t even ride a bicycle anymore) but through exploration of art, plastic, and natural materials, I now plunge willingly into the mystery.”

Robin Glassman, January 2021