We recently had the chance to connect with Ari Robinson and have shared our conversation below.
Good morning Ari, we’re so happy to have you here with us and we’d love to explore your story and how you think about life and legacy and so much more. So let’s start with a question we often ask: What is a normal day like for you right now?
A normal day for me at the moment, as we end the summer season, is waking up before the sun to get my kids ready for school. Each day is a little different as one of my kids does not go to school full time, so it is a juggling act of working in between naps, school drop-offs and pick-ups and when they go to bed at night. Somewhere in the mix I will try to find time to go to the gym and we always seem to find time to fit in lots of ice-cream dates, but at some point during the day I can get to work emails and get to creating art!. Lately, my kids love to know everything about the current projects I am working on which has been a lot of fun to see them get excited and involved.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I am an artist who specializes in abstract installation artwork. I graduated from college in 2015 with my Bachelor of Fine Arts degree and have been creating artwork ever since! Over the years I have slowly built up my portfolio and have gained some awesome clients. Some of my favorite projects to this date have been for the Toronto Blue Jays Spring Training Facility, Boston’s Children’s Hospital, The Arlo hotel in Miami, and most recently, Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital in downtown St. Petersburg.
Appreciate your sharing that. Let’s talk about your life, growing up and some of topics and learnings around that. What part of you has served its purpose and must now be released?
I think I can answer this question in two different ways. One way is coming from more of a creative layer within my work that I have been holding onto, but slowly evolving out of. Whether it be certain materials I don’t particularly feel like using in my work anymore or a certain style and pattern seen within my work. I even feel that at the moment, I am slowly transitioning out of/ merging a body of work into a new style/material to slowly let it go and change and evolve as most do! It’s a good thing to have artwork that comes from a fresh place rather than repeating the same energy for too long. A more emotional response to this answer would be the part of me that wanted to create pieces of art that I thought or knew other people would like, but was not necessarily what I fully wanted to make. The need to have audience approval slowly goes away over the years as you begin to trust yourself more as an artist, and it is a great feeling to create without the weight of expectation. Of course, with hired client commissions that is a little different as I want everyone to be 100% happy with the final piece, but overtime I have learned to feel less pressure and trust that I was hired for a specific piece because the client liked my body of work and what I can offer as well as clear communication of the projects goal and final product upfront regarding color pallete, style, size, etc.
If you could say one kind thing to your younger self, what would it be?
You are working so hard and it will pay off! Dont Stop!
I think our readers would appreciate hearing more about your values and what you think matters in life and career, etc. So our next question is along those lines. Is the public version of you the real you?
10000000% I dont think I have time to be anything else even if I wanted too! If you see me around town I 99% of the time at least have one of my kids with me and probably have paint all over my hands, but I like this version of me!
Thank you so much for all of your openness so far. Maybe we can close with a future oriented question. What will you regret not doing?
I think one thing I would regret not doing would be saying YES to projects that scare me. And I think that would be my advice to literally anyone would be to say YES and figure it out. Trust yourself, work hard and do all that you can do! It would be so crazy if I looked back on some of the larger installations I did and think if I would have said no to the project that artwork would never have existed. I also thrive on being a busy body so I love taking on a lot, but I still think if you are running your own business, especially a creative one, take the chance on yourself and say yes to opportunities that come your way so you won’t have any regrets of turning something down.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://arirobinsonart.com/
- Instagram: @arirobinsonart
- Facebook: @arirobinsonart
- Other: email : arirobinsonart@gmail.com
