For my friends who have asked: the voice overs (num­bers 15 and 17) I did recently may be heard here

Jew­elry by Robert Longyear

Last week I intro­duced artist and arti­san Robert Longyear — the crafts­man who made a ring I recently pur­chased at the Craft Alliance Gallery in St. Louis. Well, Robert was kind enough to give me an inter­view this past Fri­day which turned out to not only be a real treat but also inspi­ra­tional in an unex­pected way. You know the days when you are frozen with frus­tra­tion with an ongo­ing project but you can’t walk away for the moment to catch your breath because, well, you’re just too stub­born to give way to your ego? That was me. Then I called Robert. While he isn’t the most direct per­son when you pose a ques­tion to him — he answers you in a way that is puz­zling yet makes you think about life in way that only artists can. His pov is a real dichotomy between the harsh real­ity of urban liv­ing and beauty as it appears in rusty metal, nails, mesh, and chains. My ring, he tells me, is a kind of stream of con­scious­ness in molten metal — he sim­ply wanted to make some­thing happy and pretty.

Brooch by Robert Longyear

Robert grew up in rural Kansas and later attended the Uni­ver­sity of Kansas where he was study­ing Earth Sci­ence and needed an elec­tive. So he strolled into one of the met­al­smithing stu­dios on cam­pus. In his own words he was seduced by the tools. Once he began exper­i­ment­ing, his pro­fes­sors rec­og­nized his raw tal­ent and encour­aged his progress. He grad­u­ated with a BFA in Design and Met­al­smithing and later earned his MFA from the South­ern Illi­nois Uni­ver­sity Edwardsville. Funny how ven­tur­ing beyond your usual bound­aries can bring you to the place you were meant to be.

Instal­la­tion by Robert Longyear: A Revisionist’s Draft

When Robert moved to St. Louis, he says he became part of much big­ger con­ver­sa­tion. He ambled his way into the Craft Alliance and intro­duced him­self. The orga­ni­za­tion not only began sell­ing his work but made him their com­mu­nity out­reach direc­tor in which capac­ity he’s been work­ing, lec­tur­ing, and teach­ing for the last ten years. When you view Robert’s work, note his expres­sive use of color — despite the fact that he told me that color isn’t really his thing. Hard to agree with that since he uses it to punc­tu­ate the nar­ra­tive in his work with such poignancy. But isn’t that point of a lyri­cal wreck­age? To make us aware of the grace and need in an urban mire?

Instal­la­tion by Robert Longyear

In addi­tion to the Craft Alliance Gallery, Robert Longyear is rep­re­sented in New York by Charon Kransen Arts 817 West End Avenue, Suite 11C New York and
Hoff­man LaChance Con­tem­po­rary 2713 Sut­ton Boule­vard in St. Louis.