Response to Robin Jebavy

Robin Jebavy's meticulously entrancing art

Upon looking at her exhibition and website online, I have come to appreciate the meticulous detail with which she approaches her artistic craft. Especially when looking at her most recent online painting collection, Place with Wreath, I am astonished by the way she is able to fill up the canvas space so much that it pulls you into its magical arrangement of shapes in a captivating manner that does not leave you feeling overwhelmed but entranced (1). And it seemingly achieves to do that due to the analogous color palette that is being used in her works, which allows the spectator to focus on identifying the shapes that ambiguously overlap one another instead of being distracted by a visual orchestra of colors. 

The enticing dynamism in her images also seems to come out of the round core elements that are central to each piece, that ultimately create a focal point of each one of those works that the spectator’s eyes seem to consistently trace around when taking in her art. The piece that embraced that visual structure powerfully as well as stood out and captivated me the most was Place with Wreath (Pond), as it seems to achieve a perfect balance between that circling, dynamic type of magical entrancement of detail and resulting calming visual effect that is not overstimulating, but magically alluring (2). The combination and blend of cold hues (such as blue, purple, green, and yellow shades) then seem to ensure that overall peaceful effect, despite the work’s striking orchestra of detail.  

Conclusively, the meticulousness but ambiguous arrangement of such detail seem poetic within the context of her works, which she also states in her biographical statement indicating that she raises “questions about our intimate relationship with the external world… [through patterns of] receptacles of poetic emotion, thought, and memory; and conduits into liminal ecstatic states of being”. In such, her work seems philosophically and in some ways existentially poetic, which I feel quite intrigued and inspired by, as I would like to combine such ideas into my art as well.

References to her Art:

(1) Plate with Wreath — ROBIN JEBAVY

(2) Image referenced above as screenshotted from her portfolio section Plate with Wreath