Tag: Frankd Robinson

Spend Earth Day with Frank D. Robinson

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Beloved Memphis Artist Frankd Robinson will be leading workshops this Saturday, Earth Day, April 22, at the West Tennessee Spring Conference of the Tennessee Art Education Association. It’s an all day event that takes place at the Memphis Museum of Science and History (MOSH), or the Pink Palace, as it was formerly named. You can find out more about Mr. Robinson on this post, or google his name for more information.

The conference is part of the River Arts Fest and will be from 8:30 a.m. til 3:45 (Conference starts at 9, but there will be coffee and snacks at 8:30). Workshops will include:

“Turning Recyclables into Classroom Jewels for Artmaking with Frank D. Robinson:  Bring your bag of trash, trinkets and whatnots that you want to turn into jewels for your Portrait/Collage ArtWork.

Bring Magic to Your Art Instruction with Tech with Tambe Howlet

Digging Deep Observational Drawing in the Science Museum – The Natural History Galleries in the Museum are full of delights! Captivating collections of native animals and insects abound, as well as full scale replicas of dinosaurs! During this workshop, we will immerse ourselves in drawing from our choice of stunning Still-Lifes in the galleries. Bring your favorite drawing tools – paper and boards will be provided!”

All the details can be found here at the TAEA website. There is a very reasonable fee and an option for a food truck lunch or to bring your own brown bag lunch.

I contacted them and they are still taking registrations, though they are filling up fast. When you register, you’re required to give the name of a school and district. I put in Murray Art School and Midtown Adult District. It took my registration then, so try it. There are email contacts listed if you have problems with registration and they were very quick in responding with information.

It seems like it’ll be a great way to celebrate Earth Day, creative recycling, and art. I hope to see you there.

Trust Your Struggle by Frankd Robinson

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Selling Art Online

Posted in Art for Sale, UncategorizedTagged , Leave a comment

I’ve been experimenting with selling art to people online, but not through Etsy or any of the other forums.  I felt I could do better with direct contact here on my blog and on Facebook.  I decided to try a facebook page dedicated to art sales because I want to help my friends Frankd Robinson and TheOuterCircle sell their art, too.  I wanted to see if it got more traffic than my personal page.

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I WISH I LIVED IN A BETTER WORLD by Frankd Robinson, mixed media, 11×23″ $300.

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THEY HAD NO IDEA WHAT THEY WERE LOOKING AT, by TheOuterCircle, Acrylic on Board, 10×13″ Framed $100

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THEY HAD NO IDEA detail

It did not.  The page seems cluttered and not any easier to navigate than the one I already use.  They want me to pay for boosts and are always bugging me to put money into advertising.  They told me there were messages I couldn’t find.  I may not be smart enough to do the page.  It doesn’t seem to lead to sales anyway.

In fact, since the safe at home protocols have been in place, I’ve sold three pieces, one from my regular Facebook page.  And two from the blog.  So that less assertive way of sales seems to be the way to go.

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IT’S COMPLICATED by Joy Murray

 

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YOUR SOUL GROWS WITH YOU by Joy Murray

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YOUR SACRED LIGHT by Joy Murray

So I’m going to take the art page down and let you know about art for sale through this blog and my personal Facebook page.  I’ll be posting things from the March show that had poor turnout because of the corona virus.  Contact me by email or on facebeook if you’re interested in the pieces by Frankd and TheOuterCircle posted here.

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Frankd Robinson, TheOuterCircle, Joy Murray  Friends Through Art

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This blog is brought to you by the generosity of people who support me on Patreon , buy my art, and who support me in so many different ways. 

Cards and prints on some of my art is available on Redbubble.  

If you find a typo, let me know, and I’ll send you a postcard.

 

 

 

 

Something About Your Light

Posted in Long Term Illness, original art, UncategorizedTagged , 3 Comments

Beloved Memphis artist Frankd Robison posts pictures of himself on social media as well as his friends and his healing process as he works to deal with serious health problems.  It’s lucky for me because I can practice sketching various facial expressions from his pictures.  He posts his paintings and his philosophy of hope, and the belief that love never fails, without ignoring the sorrow and brutality of the world.

Earlier this year he posted this photograph:

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Photo by Frankd Robinson

I look at it frequently — something about the light and his expression and his clothes strike me as sacred.  The sacred struggle of life as we try to survive diseases in addition to all the chaos and pain life throws our way.   There is pain, but there is light, there is grace.

I didn’t know if I had the skill to paint this light, but it kept nagging at me.  I wanted to commune with the image in a way that I can only do with paint.  So I plunged forward and painted it the best I could.

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Something About Your Light, by Joy Murray, Acrylic on stretched canvas, 9×12

My goal wasn’t to exactly reproduce the photograph, but to do an homage, like I did with my last painting of Frankd.

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How Does Your Garden Grow? 

And here are a few of Frankd Robinson’s remarkable works:

 

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This blog is brought to you by the generosity of people who support me on Patreon , buy my art, and who support me in so many different ways. 

Cards and prints on some of my art is available on Redbubble.  

If you find a typo, let me know, and I’ll send you a postcard.

An Homage to Frankd Robinson

Posted in original art, UncategorizedTagged , 2 Comments

I’ve loved Frankd Robinson’s art for probably 2 decades now.  He is a Memphis artist who uses paint, collage, found objects and his own unique style to create vibrant art.  His work honors the reality of urban life, the struggles of Black people and Black women in particular.   He has a way of taking mundane items and the things we discard and turning them into works of art.

I remember when I first saw his work thinking it’s like he’s taken all the trash I see at the bus stop and turned into something dynamic and glorious.  His work made me see how you can create with whatever is at hand, how to integrate words into vivid color.

Here’s a video of him from about 9 years ago, talking about his art:

 

Lately, Robinson has had to deal with diabetes and difficult health transitions.  Although I don’t know him that well, I follow him on Facebook and Instagram.  He posts pictures of his everyday life, of his dialysis, of his physical therapy after amputations, of his friends and family, his barber, his fraternity brothers.   Still telling a story, still knowing his life has value.

He’s made these cool, dramatic necklaces/amulets:

 

 

When I saw this photo:

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I was so taken by the tree tattoo, that I decided I had to do a sort of portrait based on him.

I looked at a lot of pictures of him, a lot of his art.  I read his encouragements to everyone, the way he posts positive things about life, while remaining very real about our struggles.

I worked on it for a over a month, and finished a few days ago.  I call it “How Does Your Garden Grow?”

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How Does Your Garden Grow? for Frankd Robinson by Joy Murray

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Despair accompanies illness and disability, but so does learning and resilience.  And love.  You learn to love yourself enough to survive.  You learn who really loves you, who helps you when you are thrown a curve and your whole life changes; who loves you when they know you’ll never be the same physically.  You learn your limits, but also your strengths.

When I am low, I remember it’s my job to love my damned self.  And when I do that, all these other bits of beauty bloom in my life.

I’m so fortunate to have art in my life, and to have found the art of Frankd Robinson.

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