About the artist


My name is Robin Aronson and I'm a Floridian, living mostly in Minnesota (but doing a lot of bouncing back between the two), and still trying to get used to snow in April.

Sedona (click for whole picture)(more on this later: note glaring lack of art jewelry)



 
   

Sedona

Little did I know when the picture of me (above) was taken, that my life was about to veer off onto a new track. Bob and I took a side trip to Sedona, AZ while we were in the area on business. For anyone who hasn't been there, it is a wonderful art community, full of shops and beautiful scenery. We browsed around the art galleries and Bob was very enthusiastic about some very expensive items. At the time, I had just come from a demanding job and had not had time to do any artwork for 20 years, but it occurred to me that I could make him a sculpture. I made a trip to JoAnn Etc. with my 50% off coupon, bought one pack of Super Sculpey, and set about trying to make a bas-relief sculpture for Bob.

 

 

My husband Bob: he can't quite figure out how one little block of clay spread into 6 rooms and took over the house, but he has yet to complain about it.
 


The Art

I started out primarily with polymer clay, mostly making jewelry, and eventually branched out into metal clay, silversmithing, glass fusing and lampwork. I'm really lucky in that the Twin Cities area is filled with great learning opportunities. Maureen Carlson's Center for Creative Arts in Jordan, MN is only a half-hour from my house. Maureen is an internationally-known polymer clay artist, author and teacher, and she also brings other big-name clay artists to her center to teach classes. There is also an abundance of classes in all other areas of jewelry-making.

Click here for more on polymer clay.

 

Why do I do it?

For the money, of course! If you count the trips to the craft shop, the materials, the trial and error, the creation of new pieces, the sanding and buffing, the finishing, the packaging and mailing, the sale events, the auction listings and the web page, I net maybe 6 cents an hour (hey, I can make it up in volume!). But I don't want to mass-produce or turn out items on an assembly-line, so I just feel lucky to be able to cover expenses for doing something that I enjoy so much. Maybe when Bob retires in a few years and I am counted on for supplemental income, I will figure out how to get things a little more automated. For now, though, I am for the most part producing one piece at a time and hope to keep it that way as long as I can.

 

 

La Stella Celeste

Italian for 'heavenly star'. The Italian part was inspired by Bob's maternal family, who came over from Italy in the 1920s. As a 15th-or-more generation Irish-Scotch-Native-American-who-knows-what-else who can't identify with a particular culture, I enjoy seeing the way his family places so much value on their ethnic background, love, family, friends, food, food, food… Bob is half Swede, but identifies totally with the Italian side of the family. We went to Rome for our honeymoon and were awestruck by the richness of the art, culture, architecture, and the music. I am also a musician who loves the Italian music of the Renaissance and Baroque periods. I play viola da gamba, harp, recorder and lute. My music group in Florida, which plays music of these periods, is called La Dolce Vita (a term that originated in the Renaissance - I was not the originator of the name for the group).

 

 
Stella

The 'heavenly star' part: for my granddaughter, Stella Marie, who is an angel most of the time. In my family, she is the lone branch at the top of the family tree. When you read about couples celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary, you usually read that they have something like "3 children, 10 grandchildren, and 16 great-grandchildren with 2 more on the way". In our family, my grandparents had 2 children, 2 grandchildren, one great-grandchild and one great-great grandchild, so we have the family vine instead of the family tree.


My Family

I mentioned Bob's family and I don't want to leave mine out: My son, Tim, is an electrician by trade and a musician at heart. He is 6'5", plays electric guitar and bass, and is tired of people asking him if he plays basketball. We're thrilled to have just added a new daughter-in-law, Jennifer, to the family. They take good care of the house that we inhabit when we're in Florida. Tim's daughter Stella is 9 years old and boy does she love her daddy!

 

My Sister

My sister April is the real artist in the family and does spectacular oil and acrylic paintings. She painted a picture of Bob and me that is so realistic that it's almost spooky to look at. Her husband Guy is a master woodworker and made the frame for the picture. They devote all the time they can to making things, refinishing antiques, fixing up their house and taking care of their cats.
My Parents

I have the best parents in the world. Bob considers himself lucky to have such good in-laws (as do I). My parents, Granville and Pat, have always both been extremely supportive and encouraging in all of our artistic and musical endeavors. My mother sends me unassembled necklaces (beads and clay). My dad advises us in financial matters to help April rand me be able to someday have more time to devote to art and music. (They'll probably kill me for this, but can you believe they're 80 and 76 years old?)

Bob's Mom - Mary Pancotti Aronson (1913 - 2003)

She will always be remembered for her love of family and the wonderful Italian meals she prepared. She had a wonderful sense of humor right to the end. Shortly before she passed away, she asked us if we would lie in her obituary and say she was only 89 because she didn't want anyone to know she was 90.

 

The Grandpuppies

Rocko and Ginger

They're both big goofy lovable in-your-face mutts. They go nuts trying to run around and catch the little red light from Bob's laser pointer. (You should see them when we shine it in their water bowl. ) If you have one of these items and a dog or cat, you're in for hours of entertainment.

Ginger

The alpha dog. She lives to catch the frisbee! This is her "lets go out and play frisbee" look. She spends all her time either catching the frisbee or begging someone to go out and throw the frisbee to her. If you throw it right, she'll catch it every time.

...whoops...did I leave my tongue out again? ...how embarassing!

Rocko

He helps me work on the laptop by trying to jump at the screen and catch the cursor. I'll never get all the dog slobber marks off my screen, but he was too cute to make him stop. When he saw the pictures of the doggies, he got all excited and kept running around to look behind the screen to try to find them.

Rocko: at 70 lbs, he just can't understand why he can't be a lap dog.
Teenie: The newest member of the family.