Artist Statement

Reform begins with awareness. Created in the midst of the pandemic, I was still able to engage several community youth to help with the concepts and the assemblage of these collages, while maintaining our social distance.

“Lady Liberty?” was created as a sarcastic view of Black “justice” in the United States. She is an abstract figure hidden behind reality. “A Bloody Trail” incorporates three used gun range targets, representing the psychological paralysis that being Black has on the youth. It was important to the young artists to use the actual clippings from publications in both works.

Biography

An award-winning artist, art educator and art therapist, Robin Robinson, along with her studio partner Gary Williams, trained in the style of nationally-renowned muralist Kent Twitchell. In 2012, Gary and Robin took the reins of Sankofa Fine Art Plus and amended its mission to include community engagement. In 2015, they created their first socially relevant public wall mural in the Glenville neighborhood of Cleveland. “Our Lives Matter” was a community response to the police brutality of the time. The overwhelming response was the catalyst for Sankofa’s Urban Renaissance with heART community engagement public art program. Together, this dynamic duo has created many monumental and beautifully relevant community statements throughout Cuyahoga County.

Robin Robinson leads community workshops that make the participants feel respected and heard. “As a Black artist, it is my responsibility to translate the otherwise ignored voices of my community into artworks that are engaging aesthetically while being intrinsically thought-provoking.” Visit the work of Sankofa Fine Art Plus.