Deborah Roberts

So many times i've been told, " why did you make it so big?" Most of the time i say to myself ... " that's none of your concern," but i typically give a generic answer. I am a artist who paints both large scale painting and small works, because I find that sometimes a small whisper carries just as much punch as a loud scream. My work deals with controversial issues like race and beauty so i have to be careful in my practice not to come across as angry or resentful. Large scale painting tend to me to be historic and powerful and makes us all mortal in front of them. I love that! Last night I had the chance to meet artist Jack Whitten at a lecture here in Austin. It was amazing to here him speak on potency of doing large scale works long side smaller ones. He champion this notion that if the message was clear and succinct size didn't matter. I agree with that statement! Look, if i were paint a 2in by 2in painting of a lynching which is very disturbing but...

Is political art turning you off? I guess to most artists who haven't really been under the shoe of oppression might think that making political is boring, limiting and overused. I was asked in my thesis defense, "Haven't the art world had enough of Black beauty?" I am paraphrasing but you get the meaning of the question. What does one say to a question like that? When we look at beauty magazine covers on news stands few if any have a Black face on the cover.   In the current issue of InStyle magazine featuring Kerry Washington  the editors thought "lightening her skin" was acceptable. Her beauty wasn't in question, her skin tone was. I think art and politics go hand and hand, it's the "politics of respectability." Below is segment of my views on gaining respectability through the use of grotesque imagery. The Grotesque in Art History Theorists and historians have explored the social and cultural contexts ...

So, like most of you I want to do well in the Art World! Mostly, for myself but partly because of the people who think its impossible to do so. I get it, it's not easy, but if this is the one thing that give you a sense of purpose you have to go for it! Yesterday, I meet a older artist who gave me so many excuses to why he hadn't found any real success that I wanted to throw up once he explain the reason for his lack of success. First, there was his fantasies about how the Art World works, then there was this notion that if he just made work the business end will take care of itself. Then there was the idea that,"My work is too powerful for the masses" then in the same breath... "No one will show me, (pause) if i could just have a solo show show ..." or this one "My work is about the Black experience." Really, because no ones ever done work on the Black experience before! Ok, ok, ok, now here's the kicker,"I really don't paint that oft...

Thank you Mr. Motherwell!  Collage may be the twentieth century's greatest innovation, but in the twentieth first century it sometimes gets a bad rep. I can't tell you how many times someone has come up to me and said, " collage is so easy" or " it just cutting out paper, you can do hundreds in an afternoon!" Really, because I've tried and they look like crap! No matter how much or many you do It takes lots of work to make anything look effortless, just look at any of Matisse's works. Even as a painter he did numerous amount of collages called "gouaches decoupes". He was great, look at all that paper at his feet!  When Matisse became sick with cancer later in his career, he found away to still do what he could no longer do with a brush. It was away of reaching for something new! Checkout last weeks episode of Sunday Morning, and be inspired!  http://www.cbsnews.com/videos/henri-matisse-and-a-new-art-form  Artists are trying to fig...

Deborah Roberts: Studio visits... Love them? : So, I had a studio visit yesterday and was feeling pumped afterwards! Scott Sherer director of the UTSA Art Gallery and I talked about the...

Deborah Roberts: Studio visits... Love them? : So, I had a studio visit yesterday and was feeling pumped afterwards! Scott Sherer director of the UTSA Art Gallery and I talked about the...

So, I had a studio visit yesterday and was feeling pumped afterwards! Scott Sherer director of the UTSA Art Gallery and I talked about the work, my practice and how best to create new pathways to push the work into multiple directions without getting lost in old troupes. We talked for hours as a second year Grad student looked on. I felt pretty goods afterwards, but this isn't always the case. As we all know, some studio visits can have a polarizing effect on ones "fragile" psyche. I mean just getting ready for a visit can cause anxiety for me.  I know what's happening in my work but..but do they see it? If not, do i really care? or should i care? In an Huffington post article last week, a young artist asked, "Do i really need other people looking at my work?" http://www.huffingtonpost.com/clara-lieu/ask-the-art-professor-how_14_b_6435828.html  The author posits, "No artist can rely exclusively on themselves to critique their artwork; bringing in a...