Robert Spies

Sculptor and Printmaker

Hominid

Animus Brevis

Artist Statement

I first imagined figures in tree trunks and was eventually able to realize them with gouges and files. It was deeply satisfying, yet I wanted more and “better."  And so I kept going, turning to the early modernists often for my fixes and inspiration. Then, later it was the cubists and especially Paleolithic and tribal art from southern Europe, Oceania, Africa and elsewhere.   The work can be a delicate charcoal and ochre rendering of a bison on a cave wall or an abstract hardwood figure with planes and simplified features from Micronesia. I also cast aluminum and bronze, make mud paintings and collages. I source my sketchbook for etchings and block prints.  We reinvent “ourselves” every moment, a liberating metaphor for our work.
 
 
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Bob's Lino Print

Cretian Jester

Miss Celling

Macrocystis, Solar Plate Etching

U2 Wood Sculpture

Untitled Collage, Mixed Media

A Day, Solar Plate Etching

Sea Palm, Solar Plate Etching