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Robert Kinsell completed his Master of Fine Art in painting at the University of Wisconsin/Madison. Since 1988, Kinsell has been an associate professor of art at Stephen F. Austin University in Nacogdoches, Texas. He has instructed such fields as Painting, Drawing, Figure Drawing, Design, and Advertising Design. Kinsell’s recent solo exhibitions include: "Reality-Virtual and Otherwise" at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Texas and "The Secret Life of Objects: Ten Years in Texas" at the Museum of East Texas in Lufkin, Texas. He has had exhibitions at the Long View Museum in Longview, Texas; the Galveston Art Center in Galveston, Texas; the Glassell School of Art in Houston, Texas; Arkansas Art Center in Little Rock, Arkansas; and Laguna Gloria Art Museum in Austin, Texas. His work can be found in a number of public and private collections.
Robert Kinsell continues to transform on canvas found objects into scenes which are staged theatrically. He describes his current work as follows: "It seems that most of my life as an artist I have been staring at walls and tables. While I have worked in all of the traditional representational genres, I always return to the still life, where I find a universe in the microcosm of simple materials that I have arranged in front of my easel and camera. Objects I find in the kitchen or in the potting shed, even the detritus of the garden, have presented me with a vocabulary and a cast of characters from which I continually find my pictures.
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The transformation of objects from one sphere of reference to another is essential to my work. My joy in working is being able to see a stick as a bone, a bone as a bridge, an arrangement of produce as a figural group, a wall as a sketchbook. For the most part I do this not to find meaning in the literal sense but to make a visual order out of these materials. I let the objects surprise me as they become altered.
Using tools that aid my physical vision has been a part of my work since the beginning. I spent ten years working directly from the objects in front of me, using grids, plumb lines and measuring devices to help me apprehend the visual information. Later, I used photography in various forms to help extend my range of vision. Currently, I am using digital photography and 3D modeling software to compose and develop my work. The digital prints that result are, in effect, my drawings, which proceed, or in some cases follow the paintings. Like drawing, the digital work also allows me to explore ideas that I may not explore in painting.
We look at an artist’s work, not at his tools. Traditional or digital in origin, the concluding visual impact of the work is my only real concern. It is of little interest to me if something is drawn, painted, photographed or printed. It is of paramount importance that the viewer finds something that resonates in the work."
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Major Exhibitions
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