Welcome!
I’ve tried to make exploring some of my work here easy and interesting.
Click on a painting to see a larger image and a few notes about the background or inspiration for it.
I would love to talk about my work! Click “inquire” to ask a question about a piece. If a price is listed, it is available for purchase.
(Just click the “purchase” link and we can make arrangements.)
About Robin Luker
When I was a child, my mother worked in a fabric store. Sometimes she would bring home old pattern books. These were a delight to me. I would look through them and copy the designs and make up my own. I drew on every scrap of paper I could get my hands on. I have a memory of one fourth of July when my brothers were outside lighting fireworks, and I was too engrossed in drawing to go out and watch them. The pattern books were my first art mentor.
My parents are artistic too. I remember the mural my father painted in my bedroom when I was very little. And I remember with fondness the few paintings my mother made; they were lovely. I suppose my parents were too busy raising us to do much with their artistic talents. My Grandfather was artistic too. He was a rockhound, and he made amazing stained-glass windows using beautiful thinly sliced stones and colored glass. I am very fortunate because he taught me how. It influences how I see and create art!
When I graduated from high school, I was at a loss of what to do next. Yes, I knew what was conventionally done, apply for scholarships and get higher education, etc. etc. But that felt so daunting! My friend at the time told me I could go to New Orleans and sell my art at Jackson Square. It seems funny to me now, that going to the university and figuring out continuing education, was more terrifying than catching a Greyhound bus across the country, with nothing but a backpack full of art supplies and clothes, but that’s what I did. Of course, this led to an education of a very different sort. I lived in a condemned, half burned mansion on the edges of the French Quarter. Living homeless in New Orleans, and then later in San Francisco, I saw many who wandered and were “lost”. This is a reoccurring theme in my paintings.
Eventually I received my bachelor’s degree in drawing and painting at the University of Utah. Then, art took a backseat to raising my family. I learned over the years, painting very seldom, that art is something that my soul deeply needs to be whole. Sometimes absence is a powerful teacher.
I feel a strong gravitational pull to create meaningful art. Not just something nice to look at, (though I hope I achieve that too) but something that has layers of interest. Secrets that the viewer can puzzle over and interpret in a way that is meaningful to them individually. I use what I have observed from life and learned from history. And I scrap together poetry, subtle things like the language of flowers, and deeply considered things such as the Japanese art of Kintsugi, to create art that is cohesive in spirit.
