Life & Work with Robert Wright

Today we’d like to introduce you to Robert Wright. 

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
Profoundly deaf since age 5, I adapted by lip-reading and picking up body language to get by. I finally received a decent pair of hearing aids when I was 10 and was mainstreamed in a Catholic school in Lancaster, Ohio. I graduated the Rhode Island School of Design in 1976 and have been painting ever since. I developed a calligraphic style of gesture drawing since 1973 from sitting in ballet classes in 1973 and use this “body language” as the basis for my artworks, which have evolved over the years into the complex mixed-media work I am doing today. My experiences as a boarding school student in Gates Mills, Ohio, has provided me with a backdrop for my three novels, “The Clay Orchard,” “The Clay Labyrinth,” and “The Clay Mountain.” My parents weren’t too happy with my decision to go into an art career but supported my decision nevertheless. I supported myself and my family by working as a pizza delivery driver for 12 years, as a graphic designer for 23 years, and then taught high school art for 11 years, all while I painted nights and weekends and frequently shown in Short North galleries and out-of-state exhibitions. I moved to Cleveland in 2020 and paint full-time in my basement studio. I’m getting ready for a major exhibition of my work in September-November 2022 at the 78th Street Studios arts complex in Lakewood. 

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Being deaf can be a major disadvantage since it’s an “invisible handicap.” It’s very difficult for me to talk business on the telephone, so I am hard to reach. The web has made communications easier. Growing up handicapped in mainstreamed education could be heart-breaking sometimes. I was targeted and bullied by some and ignored by others. I was lucky to have a few friends but mostly stayed by myself. Even now, some people don’t know how to talk to me and either over-pronounce their words or shout or just try to avoid me. It has been really hard to find galleries to represent my work because it is so different from mainstream fine art. In the past, I have sold my work in “Yart” sales when I have been desperate for funds. 

Being an artist is 10% talent and 90% courage. Every day, I go into the studio to work on good faith that someday my work will be appreciated and understood. And that takes courage because of the overwhelming silence I live with. 

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar, what can you tell them about what you do?
Being a deaf artist situates me in a unique experience. I am a lip reader, and my 90% loss of hearing leaves me sensitive to body language and the implications of gesture since I rely on visual cues. My disability makes me to look for meaning in the way people move. I prefer observing and drawing from dancers because they are less inhibited. My inner dance world is important to me. I communicate my deaf self through these marks. I feel the way we move reflects our identities. By capturing the odd angles and juxtapositions I see in life, I create an abstracted world of human energy and unspoken meaning, as well as works reflecting beauty, grace, strength, balance, and rhythm. Since 2000 I prepare my canvas with collage for cultural referencing, leaving collage semi-exposed within the marks. This serves as a visual zeitgeist, as catalogue of place and culture. Combined with my dancer/marks, my work synthesizes place, rhythmic form, and visual energy. 

I was personally happy that my 2000 Lanning Gallery exhibition in Columbus Short North was heralded by the Columbus Dispatch at year-end as one of the top exhibitions in Columbus. And in 2013, I was a regional finalists for the Bombay Sapphire Artisan Series in Atlanta, GA. I’ve shown in several Ohio State Fair Fine Arts exhibitions and have had over 50 one-man shows and 100 group shows in the United States. 

Is there any advice you’d like to share with our readers who might just be starting out?
Any artist starting out should spend their time drawing from their daily life. You don’t need a nude model in front of you to draw. Dirty dishes piling up in the sink, clothes thrown across the floor, food on the table, the person sitting next to you all should be drawn regularly. Drawing is how you discover how to look at things critically. 

Because of my deafness, I didn’t hear a lot of advice thrown my way in art college, but one thing did stick with me. In prep school, I was lucky to have the noted Croatian-American sculptor Joseph Turkaly as a mentor/instructor, and learning how to sculpt portraits from a sitting model taught me how to see that forms are convex or concave, every touch and gesture you make are convex or concave. As a result, my orientation in art has been to the figure, and the moving figure presents a complex network of concave and convex forms that in drawing, become icons for movement. 

Pricing:

• Small works from $50
• Medium-sized works from $400
• Large works from $800-2000

Contact Info:

• Website: www.rwrightart.com
• Instagram: rwrightartguy

Image Credits
Robert S Wright