Bio
After earning a Ph.D. in linguistics and teaching at Indiana University for 26 years, I turned my full attention to weaving and dyeing and then watercolor. I won awards for my fiber art at such prestigious shows as Bloomington, Indiana’s, 4th Street Festival of the Arts and Crafts. I am a recipient of an Indiana Artist’s Grant (2002). In 2014, I began to work with watercolor, first as a way to stay sane during Hoosier winters, and then as a personal challenge, to master this tricky medium. My work was quickly accepted into juried exhibitions including the Watercolor Society of Indiana [signature member] and the Hoosier Salon.
As a primarily self-taught artist, I did an intensive study of color theory on my own, using that knowledge to inform my work as a dyer and fiber artist and later as a painter. My artistic mantra is, ‘Don’t paint the thing, paint how the light hits the thing’ and I spend a lot of time working out how to use color to best effect to do just that. I have been teaching color theory since 2003.
I was born in Michigan, went to college in Utah, but have spent the vast majority of my life in Indiana, where I grew up and which I love. My home is in rural southern Indiana, and I paint the woods, fields, marshes, farms next door and the clouds in the sky. Everything that happens in this world happens under the sky. We ought to look at it more.
A few FAQs
1. What's your life like? I am a middle aged woman married to a middle aged guy and we have middle aged kids. OK, they're not middle aged, but they used to be in middle school. We live on 40 acres in the country in south central Indiana. I paint, haul gravel and dirt, garden, walk, listen to the birds and fight to keep acres of blackberries from taking over our place like Sleeping Beauty's castle. We're currently in the middle of a huge house rebuild project. Some day we hope to show the house who's boss. Right now it's a toss-up.
2. Where did your logos come from? It's a good story. Three good stories, actually.
The logo for my yarn business came from my studio. When we built it, the four doors/windows in the front were supposed to be identical all the way across. The builders didn't do it that way for...reasons. I was really bummed, but my step-dad point out that the front of the studio was a lot more interesting this way. He was right. I painted the doors dark red and not long after, when I was searching for a new logo idea, I realized the studio doors would be perfect.
The logo for the blog came from a site that was harvesting antique typeface from old books under the public domain. The scans were messy and it took hours on photoshop to clean up and finesse the image, but I love the way it turned out. I've always been fond of Rs.
The signature logo for my art site is a direct scan of my own signature, cleaned up a bit on photoshop. I have to say, I'm pretty proud of this signature. When I was in grade school, I was often told how horrible my handwriting was. I took a typing class as soon as I could and avoided writing things by hand. Decades later I took an online lettering class from Joanne Sharpe and one of the things she says is, 'Your handwriting is beautiful and you can make beautiful letters with it'. I decided to believe her and in retrospect that one idea was a real turning point for me artistically. I stopped hating my writing and started loving what I could do with it. It wasn't as beautiful as my great grandmother's, or mom's or sister's, but it was quirky and fun and all mine. Thank you, Joanne! 3. How do you do so much? Are you just super talented? No, I'm not any more talented than you are. You can do this stuff, too. The secret to my success is that I tell myself I can do whatever I need to do. Then I get serious and actually do it. When life tosses me something unexpected, I find a workaround.
This is my mantra: Stay calm. Stay positive. Think creatively.
4. How long have you been painting? I dabbled in acrylics after grad school. [I have a Ph.D. in linguistics from Indiana University.] I got serious about watercolor in 2014. I realized that mastering watercolor allowed me to deal with bigger life issues, like studying, planning and preparing, then doing your best, and then dealing gracefully with the things that happen that are out of your control. It's a good metaphor for life. I like metaphors.
5. Was homeschooling hard? Not at all - as long as you like spending a lot of time with your kids, as in 'attached at the hip'. I homeschooled my kids K-12. If you like your kids and don't mind being with them all day, then homeschooling won't be a problem. In fact, it's a joy. You'll learn a lot about yourself in the process. My youngest is dyslexic, so I had to completely re-think everything we did for our first. Yes, it was hard, but it worked brilliantly and I'm so glad we did it.
6. What happened to the donate button? Even though I love producing this blog, I still have to pay the electric bill. And feed my kids. And buy tomato seeds. And paint. And gravel. Lots of gravel. I took the Donate button off when I published the ebook and took on a day job which I love, working for Angela Fehr as her director of operations. I hope you like the site well enough to support it and the best way to support it is to buy some of my art. You can find it at the link below.
Watercolors: www.robinedmundson.com
7. Do you participate in any affiliate or advertising programs? Yes. [Why? See above] Here are my disclosures:
Amazon: Robin Edmundson is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.
I get paid a small amount if you enter Amazon through my site/link and if you actually purchase an item within 24 hours. I get paid nothing if something goes in your cart and isn't bought within 24 hours.
Adsense: Rurification is a participant in Adsense. Adsense tailors its ads to my topics and your usage. If you click on the top right corner of an Adsense ad, you can change some of your preferences. Note: I only get paid if someone clicks on an ad. If you want to help bloggers out, then click on their ads.