Excavation of archeological sites has shown that people have sculpted ceramic human and animal figurines for 26,000 years. Folklore and religions throughout the world include stories of beings created from clay.
That creative flow continues today through artists like Robin Power, whose home and studio are in Lemont.
Although she is proficient in many art forms from basket weaving to wheel-thrown pottery, Power likes best, and is known for, her hand-worked figurative sculptures of humans and animals.
Her next public event will be the Beverly Art Walk on Sept. 23, where she will give pottery demonstrations from noon to 5 p.m at the Ridge Historical Society, 10621 S. Seeley Ave.
Power’s mastery of her field is recognized in the arts community throughout Chicagoland.
Sal Campbell, a founder and the lead curator of the Beverly Area Arts Alliance, calls Power’s work “brilliant” and said that Power is “at the top of her game in her field of ceramics.”
“Robin’s talent is just in the stratosphere. She’s exquisite at capturing not just the human figure, but human emotions in clay,” Campbell said.
For Power, though, her art is not about accolades, it’s about the creative process.
“Clay is where I have found my creative voice and artistic freedom of expression,” she said. “My focus is on making the art. I’m not great at selling my work, and I think every artist in the world will say the same thing.”
Although she may be reticent to promote herself, she has sold many pieces through exhibits and shows. Just about everything she displays for sale sells.
The humanity that shows through Power’s work comes from her own character, which Campbell described as “down to earth and kind and generous.”
Power’s total lack of pretentiousness becomes obvious when she refers to a photo of herself holding her chicken Rosie as her “glam shot.” She uses the picture to represent herself professionally, including on the website of the Stirling Hall Community Art Center, part of Lake Forest Parks and Recreation, where she teaches classes. By her own admission, she’s “not that person” who would have it otherwise.
Power grew up as Robin Peterson in Elmhurst. Her interest in art always existed, back to her childhood.
“I did a lot of drawing and painting. What’s funny is that my parents never gave me an art class because they figured I already knew how to do that. I had to take ballet and other classes, but really what I wanted to do was just make art,” she said.
She had a “wonderful experience” with art activities at York High School, which led to a bachelor’s degree in fine arts in 1987 from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. While there, she studied anatomy, which helped her perfect her sculpting skills.
“Art education today is more conceptual, but at the time I went to the Art Institute, they really taught technique. They taught you about the material you were working with and how to use it. I took anatomy to learn about the human figure, something that always interested me. I think formal training is important, especially if you want to pursue a career in the arts,” Power said.
Much of art is self-taught, also, she said.
“I learned by being in studios, and then by my own research, and a lot of it, of course, is experimentation. And I’m still experimenting and exploring,” said Power, who will turn 65 next year.
During school and after graduation, Power took jobs in the food service industry “to pay the rent, travel, and have fun.”
One of her loves from childhood was dolls, and she started making dolls with ceramic heads, hands and feet, and cloth bodies. She approached Thomas Boland at the Merchandise Mart, the nation’s foremost doll industry representative at the time, to show him her dolls.
“I was making ethnic dolls, not dolls with blonde hair, blue eyes, and yards of lace. He said he was very impressed with my work, but the dolls that were selling had blond hair, blue eyes, and yards of lace,” said Power.
Her dolls were ahead of the times, but she and Boland hit it off, and she went to work for him for years. That led to traveling to shows and shops all over the world, including Japan, Russia and Italy.
Power met and married her husband, Jim Power, a carpenter, and she left the working world to raise their two sons. When her boys reached school age, around 2011, Power reentered the arts world.
She got back into figure sculpting through a scholarship to the Palette and Chisel of the Academy of Fine Arts, a Chicago institution dating to 1895 that still uses live models.
She next turned her attention to education, and was hired as an instructor at Lillstreet Art Center, where she taught figure sculpting, doll making, and other hand building workshops for ten years. She also taught at Moraine Valley Community College and other locations. Currently she has the position at Stirling Hall, and teaches out of her home studio.
Power said she enjoys mentoring students “through their personal growth and along their creative paths.” Using her own training, she tries to instill in them proper technique and accuracy.
“With the figurative work, I’m interested in guiding them in correct anatomy. If they want to distort the look, that’s fine, but let’s do it in a believable way,” said Power.
For her own work, Power said she gives the best part of the day to herself. She gets up early, sometimes at 4:00 a.m., makes a cup of coffee, and starts working in the studio. Her figures are all unique and come from her own “subconscious and emotions.”
“I’ll have an idea or a thought about something, and I just start working with the clay. I can hyper focus, I’m able to put all my energies into that work. The house could burn down, and I might not notice,” Power said. “Sometimes I’ll make something I don’t like or it’s not what I’m feeling, and what’s nice about clay is I can just put it back in the bucket.”
Power believes it is possible to tell a piece of work that has been created from the artist’s heart and inner being.
“That’s where I work,” said Power.
Carol Flynn is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.
