Robert blogs on art, creativity, politics, CSA, religion and culture. Many overlap into multiple categories, like motivational or random favorites. Robert is a life-long artist, writer, musician & actor, a professional creative his entire adult life. Born in 1959 in Detroit, he has lived in New York, New Orleans and currently in Charleston. His commission portraits and fine art are part of over a thousand collections throughout North America. Read his bio.
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Grooming
Trump is grooming his followers. He is a known predator and grooming is essential to how they operate. People say they don’t understand how a sexual deviant can get a kid to agree to go with him alone into a room and get him to voluntarily give up his/her innocence....
Portrait of Buzz Harper
One of my most memorable experiences as a portrait artist, this portrait of Buzz brings back the wonderful times we had together. Buzz was an extraordinary designer, specializing in 18th century French decor. His homes are like museums filled with historical gilded...
Justin Time
We had a wonderful Holiday Party / Portrait Demonstration last evening at the Summerville Art Guild. Justin, my awesome neighbor agreed to pose and I think it came out rather well. I love it when my work is so appreciated. And I really enjoy painting from life with a...
Seeing as an Artist
"Who am I anyway? Am I my resume?" from A Chorus Line What is in our identity that makes us who we are? What is it in a person's face, that if we capture it, we call it a likeness? People boast, "I never forget a face." What is it in a face that is so...
Podcast Hit the Mark
Welp, the live podcast went very well, I have to say. It flowed easily and we covered a lot of ground about CSA. My hope is that what we talked about was helpful to others who are struggling with the recovery. You need not suffer alone. NAASCA and many other programs...
Perpetrators and Survivors
In response to releasing "The Destroyer" out into the universe, a lot of insights (and incites) have emerged. I will share a few of mine now. The video, is not intended to resolve the epidemic of Childhood Sexual Abuse. Resolution of that problem, so deeply rooted in...
The Destroyer
TRIGGER ALERT - Mature content. Light This video (below) may be challenging for those recovering from Child Sexual Abuse. That is the intention. It is a poem, created from the perspective of the abuser. It was intended as a therapeutic exercise in empathy, by me, and...
Hush Little Child
Why Does the biggest issue of our time not get discussed in national politics? Sexual violence pervades every system in our society from the highest governmental institutions to our own homes. It is in our blood. I'd go so far as to say it is the American way:...
Watching Democracy Fall
Republicans are enthusiastically voting to make our country unsafe, under insured, uneducated, underpaid, underfed, uninformed, unable to vote. Why? Because at the end of the day they believe themselves immune from such misfortunes. Bad things only happen to those who...
Empathy for a Survivor
For 1 in 16 US women, first sexual intercourse experience was rape, study says. As a survivor, I find this is extremely troubling, to be sure. But I also wish they had gathered statistics on male CSA. My first sexual experience was being raped by a trusted family...
The Math of the Holocaust
I am a Christian, the father of two Jewish children and I am active in their synagogue. I’m also an artist, theatrician, writer and amateur mathematician. So let's do some math around the Holocaust. Have you ever wondered why there are hundreds of churches for every...
A Judge of Character
The portrait itself came about after a months long collaboration, where together we came up with elements and a pose that would express Judge Steib’s legacy and world view.
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The figures in "A Walk in the Park" are the inner cast you carry everywhere—the fool who leaps, the doubter who drags his feet, the dreamer who stares past the horizon, the judge with crossed arms, the child who still believes. They bicker, whisper, revolt and reconcile, but together they make the one you call “I.” We are all onstage at once, caught in the thin light between meaning and emptiness—a reminder that your chaos is not a flaw, but the chorus through which your true voice finally emerges. ... See MoreSee Less
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When this happens, it's usually because the owner only shared it with a small group of people, changed who can see it or it's been deleted."Identity and Self"
Opening Reception and Exhibition at
Park Circle Art Gallery
4820 Jenkins Ave.
North Charleston, SC 29405
The Exhibition runs through April 26
Gallery Hours: W-F 10:30-5:30, Sat 12-4
The collection will center on how identity interferes with our true self, our true freedom, which is a central value for an artist, as well as any self-actualized individual. For instance, when I draw my idea of a thing, rather than opening myself up to the full potential contained in the thing itself, I am limiting my creative potential.
So, who are we at our core, after we strip away the names we call ourselves, the parties with whom we affiliate, the causes for which we are fighting? After all, these are all inventions of the ego, which separate us from God and the infinite. Existence consists of light on form. Light is my medium as an artist. I am a painter of the self. I am looking always for something deeper than the surface representations in my subjects. It is the true self I am looking for when I paint, whether it is an orange, a sky or a judge. ... See MoreSee Less
“The Fantasy” oil on canvas 36" x 48", invites you into that lucid dream space where imagination feels more vivid than reality. In this oil painting, a solitary figure drifts through a dreamlike landscape of softened edges and impossible light. But the story is not fixed—you’re handed a doorway.
This piece lives in the uncertainty between escape and awakening. At first glance, it feels like a beautiful dream: rich color, fluid forms, and a sense of effortless drift. But stay with it, and you begin to notice the undercurrent—a quiet question about what we run toward, and what we’re trying to leave behind.
For the thoughtful collector, “The Fantasy” becomes a mirror for their own inner world. It speaks to anyone who has ever built a private refuge in their mind: the daydreamer, the creative, the survivor, the seeker who knows that fantasies can be both sanctuary and trap. The painting doesn’t judge that impulse; it honors it, and gently asks what new possibilities might emerge when we begin to bring those inner visions into the light of our real lives.
Hung in a living room, bedroom, or reading space, “The Fantasy” doesn’t just decorate a wall—it opens a conversation. With its layered symbolism and emotional depth, it’s the kind of work people return to, again and again, discovering new details and meanings as their own story evolves. ... See MoreSee Less
"Three Little Buds" is a framed #oilpainting looking for a new home. “Three Little Buds” captures a tender moment of becoming: three rosebuds held in that brief, luminous stage before they open. The dew on their petals hints at fresh beginnings and quiet resilience after the rain. This piece speaks to anyone who feels on the edge of a new chapter—honoring both the vulnerability and the promise of what is about to bloom.
“Three Little Buds" is about beginnings and the quiet power of what hasn’t fully unfolded yet. I painted them at that in-between moment—still closed, but clearly full of life and color, with the dew clinging to them after a fresh start.
For me, the three buds might suggest three children / three important relationships / three versions of ourselves at different times, held together in the same space of light and nurtured by potential energy. The droplets are a reminder that renewal often comes right after the storm; there’s a softness and resilience there.
It’s a painting for someone who connects with the idea of growth, protection, and the beauty of what’s just about to bloom or has bloomed in their own life. ... See MoreSee Less
Here's the entire portrait. I love judicial portraits. What do you think of this portrait? Know anyone who wants a portrait legacy created? A portrait is how people know us when we're gone. ... See MoreSee Less