Kristyn Robe
Kristyn Robe
Kristyn Robe is a ceramic artist living and working in Snowmass Village, Colorado. A Baton Rouge native, she received her bachelor of fine arts degree from Louisiana State University in ceramics, and recently completed a post-baccalaureate program in ceramics at the University of Arkansas.
My work is a continuous investigation of how things fit together, or how they do not. There is a constant feedback loop happening between myself and the materials I work with, every reaction informing the way the next material is touched. If I pour plaster into a piece of elastic latex, it flops wildly about. I attempt to constrain it with wooden frames and rubber bands that cut into the plaster in the same way a snug waistband cuts across a bloated belly. The plaster reacts and expands around these constraints into whatever shape it can, eventually hardening. This form then dictates the boundaries of the next material or the limits of my next action. I explore the unknown terrain of my materials and how they can be directed and influenced by my hand and in doing so create analogs for relationships of people, ideas, and structures that I see in the world.
The visual language of my studio practice and material studies relates to my desire to understand things about people and relationships in a broader sense. The structures I create challenge the latent expectations I have of a material or object, and investigate relationships between materials. Singular elements sit together like the pieces of a puzzle, existing in a harmonious relationship; sharp lines exist within the subtle curves; the visually soft, light material holds up and supports the heavy and roughly textured form.