Robert Woodward
aka Peanutbutter®
Artist's Statement
My visual life before fabricating art was a scientific one. It focused mostly on the interiors of animals, the microscopic examination of the interiors of cells, and the atomic-level, electron-micrographic cross-sections of diverse materials and cell components, while pondering Natural Selection, Chaos, and chance phenomena.
Since then, my artistic expression, regardless of the medium - jewelry, paintings, sculpture, installations, face painting - has been a manifestation of this formative experience. Exteriors, interiors, cross-sections - visually, they all prevail. Technically too, I set myself up to work like Nature, randomly selecting processes, as well as materials and parts that I’ve found or fabricated, to most simulate the process of Natural Selection. By constantly changing the methods (new tools, self-teaching or classes) and elements, the work evolves like Nature, with the stronger work surviving the weaker. Working quickly and on a small scale, like a virus, allows my artistic evolution to proceed at a more accelerated pace than in larger media.
On a lighter note, years of clowning - literally - has introduced a certain levity, tongue-in-cheek, droll aspect to some of the work. A performer's mission is to engage the spectator, lure the passer-by. A clown or magician does that and then adds a trick, a pun, or visual double entendre. I want the viewer to look closely, do a double-take, and then be rewarded for doing so.