Alumni Profiles

A Fine Art Creating artist books that meld visuals and narratives By Laura Pope '78

Easy to print version

Don Milici Photography

In 1968, Mademoiselle magazine ran an intriguing invitation: submit samples of art or writing and be one of 20 lucky college students selected to help publish the August issue. Sue Ann Robinson '68 decided to send in a three-dimensional, red-painted "Definition of Art," hinged so it could fold in on itself. Inside was a collage of images and textbook definitions of art in varying fonts that could be seen through windows in the walls and ceiling.

"It's interesting to look back at this now, because it was really my first artist book," says Robinson, whose submission won her one of the guest editor spots. After earning a master of fine arts at Columbia, Robinson worked as a museum educator, co-founding the first graduate degree program in museum education in the country at George Washington University. Moving to the West Coast, where she joined the Long Beach Museum of Art, she convinced the editor of the Long Beach Press-Telegram in 1987 to include "original visual art in the newspaper, not as an illustration of an article, but as an artwork in its own right." Her two-page, color spread "Chisholm Gospel" took its inspiration from actual letters written and illustrated by Jack van Ryder, an Arizona cowboy, to her great-uncle Lewis. Borders of pages were designed with early western cattle brands and twined barbed wire, and quotes from the letters were sprinkled throughout: "When the shoe floats, the coffee is ready"; "You get downright gabby after keeping four-legged company for too long a spell"; "No better word can be spoken of a man than that he is careful of his horses." The project later grew into a contemporary art "book of hours" about the American West.

Don Milici Photography BIRD IN HAND: "Books, Naturally"

Since then, Robinson has continued to create artist books, including one about the "relationship between humans and oak trees" and another called "The Walking Fools," about a tribe of people "who create shelters from their own life stories, as we all do." One of her favorites is "Books, Naturally," generated from her experiences making books with her mother, 95, who suffers from memory loss. "It continues the idea that we all have stories and we all want to be heard," Robinson says. She now offers workshops for caregivers of people with dementia and memory loss, teaching simple and inexpensive art projects they can do with their relatives. "The idea is to find a way to enjoy the present moment with people who have memory loss," she says. "Amazing conversations can take place during an art-making project."