Marilyn Robert
{{short description|American fiber artist and teacher born 1946}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=October 2024}}
{{Infobox artist
| education = 1974 B.A. in Community Service and Public Affairs
1974 A.D.N. in Nursing
1990 B.A. in Fibers
1995 M.F.A. in Fibers
| birth_place = Indiana
| birth_date = {{birth year and age|1946}}
| image = Marilyn Robert 2023-01-03.jpg
}}
Marilyn Robert (born 1946) is an American fiber artist and teacher who works in textile design and dyeing with botanical dyes. She co-founded the Eugene Textile Center with Susie Liles. Robert's teaching career since 1995 includes thirteen years as head of the Fibers program at Lane Community College, teaching textile surface design techniques and hand weaving through the Eugene Weaver's Guild, as well as faculty experience at the University of Oregon.
Early life and education
The daughter of Martin and Helen (née Ernst) Robert,{{Cite web |date=2003-06-24 |title=Obituary for Helen L. Robert |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-indianapolis-star-obituary-for-helen/158003195/ |access-date=2024-10-28 |website=Newspapers.com |language=en-US}} Marilyn Robert was born in Indiana in 1946.{{Cite web |title=1950 United States Federal Census |url=https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/133068930:62308 |url-access=subscription |access-date=2024-10-28 |website=www.ancestry.com}} She is married to Larry Koenigsberg.{{Cite web |date=2018-07-19 |title=Featured Resident: Marilyn Robert |url=https://playasummerlake.org/artist-in-residence-marilyn-robert/ |access-date=2024-10-27 |website=PLAYA |language=en-US}}
Robert took courses at the University of Dayton, Indiana University, and City College of New York{{Cite web |last=Robert |first=Marilyn |title=Textile Design and Art |url=https://marilynrobert.com/resume#341e8272-68cd-4be1-a7fa-4407436bff8b |access-date=2024-10-28 |website= |language=en-US}} prior to completing a B.A. in 1974 in Community Service and Public Affairs at the University of Oregon.{{Cite web |title=Collection: Community Action Program records {{!}} Special Collections and University Archives Collections Database |url=https://scua.uoregon.edu/repositories/2/resources/3318 |access-date=2024-10-28 |website=scua.uoregon.edu}} In 1979 she also completed an Associate Degree in Nursing at Lane Community College. She earned two more degrees in Fibers at the University of Oregon: a Bachelor's degree (1990) and a Master of Fine Arts (1995).{{Cite web |date=2018-06-03 |title=Marilyn Robert {{!}} Instructor Bios |url=http://www.eugenetextilecenter.com/marilyn-robert |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180603152258/http://www.eugenetextilecenter.com/marilyn-robert |archive-date=June 3, 2018 |access-date=2024-10-27 |website=eugenetextilecenter.com}}
Career
Marilyn Robert has taught courses and workshops on weaving, dyeing, and textile design since 1995, including "dyeing, printing, mechanical manipulations of cloth, as well as handweaving".{{Cite web |date=2019-09-09 |title=Marilyn Robert {{!}} Complex Weavers |url=https://www.complex-weavers.org/seminar-leader/marilyn-robert/?seminar=9785 |access-date=2024-11-02 |website=www.complex-weavers.org |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |date=June 19, 2021 |title=Warp & Weft Ikat Weaving {{!}} Weaving |url=https://www.eugenetextilecenter.com/warp-weft-ikat-weaving |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210619053334/https://www.eugenetextilecenter.com/warp-weft-ikat-weaving |archive-date=June 19, 2021 |access-date=June 10, 2021 |website=eugenetextilecenter.com}}
Robert's 1999 installation of translucent red silk salmon at Oregon State University's Seafood Research and Education Center (SREC) in Astoria was commissioned through Oregon's Percent for Art in Public Places Program, managed by the Oregon Arts Commission.{{Cite web |title=Untitled [Salmon] in Astoria, OR |url=https://publicartarchive.org/art/Untitled-Salmon-/4abb6430 |access-date=2024-11-02 |website=Public Art Archive |language=en}}{{Cite web |last=Robert |first=Marilyn |date=1998 |title=Robert artist statement |url=https://oregondigital.org/concern/images/df67x991v?locale=en |access-date=2024-11-02 |website=oregondigital.org}} Under the same commissioning auspices, Robert hung her translucent black and white silk Pacific Whiting installation at SREC.{{Cite web |title=Untitled [Pacific Whiting] in Astoria, OR |url=https://publicartarchive.org/art/Untitled-Pacific-Whiting-/b3708aa3 |access-date=2024-11-03 |website=Public Art Archive |language=en}}
From 1995 through 2007, Robert served as the Fiber Arts program director and an instructor at Lane Community College.{{Cite web |date=2009 |title=Marilyn Robert |url=https://www.eugenetextilecenter.com/shop/images/Marilyn_-_vita_2009.pdf |website=eugenetextilecenter.com}} She publicly disclosed in 2017 that she had left after sexual harassment by a colleague; college officials had not sanctioned the attacker on the grounds that it was a "he said, she said" situation. The Bureau of Labor and Industries eventually vindicated her complaint, yet her attacker faced no consequences.{{Cite news |last=Robert |first=Marilyn |date=November 1, 2017 |title=Letters to the Editor: System failed in harassment case |website=Eugene Register Guard |language=en |url=https://www.proquest.com/newspapers/letters-editor-s-mailbag/docview/1958350166/se-2?accountid=196403 |access-date = 2025-06-20 | url-access = subscription |id={{ProQuest|96403}}}}
Robert's international work has included travel to Japan "for study of traditional indigo-dyed textiles and contemporary fiber art", as well as organizing a 2001 textile tour to Turkey, and participation in 2012 at the First International Textile Conference in Istanbul.{{Cite web |title=Other Artists |url=https://japanesegarden.org/cultural-partners/other-artists/ |access-date=2024-11-02 |website=Portland Japanese Garden |language=en-US}}
Robert co-founded the Eugene Textile Center with Suzie Liles in 2008.
Robert has also led the Natural Dye and Ethnic Study Group of the Eugene Weaver's Guild,{{Cite news |last1=Fenley |first1=Kelly |last2=Lyon |first2=Kelly |date=2021-04-06 |title=Flower power fiber arts - Lifestyle |url=https://www.registerguard.com/article/20160811/LIFESTYLE/308119957 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210406012522/https://www.registerguard.com/article/20160811/LIFESTYLE/308119957 |archive-date=April 6, 2021 |access-date=2024-10-27 |website=Eugene Register Guard}} as well as other workshopss, such as the "Make Do and Mend Study Group".{{Cite web |title=STUDY GROUPS |url=https://www.eugeneweavers.com/studygroups |access-date=2024-11-02 |website=Eugene Weavers Guild |language=en}}
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In 2018 Robert completed a residency at PLAYA, an Oregon non-profit facility supporting "work in the arts, literature, natural sciences, and other fields of creative inquiry", located on Summer Lake in Lake County, southeast of Bend.{{Cite web |title=About PLAYA Artist & Science Program in Summer Lake, Oregon |url=https://playasummerlake.org/story/ |access-date=2024-11-02 |website=PLAYA |language=en-US}} There she collected and identified plant species for dyeing fabric, using a plant list from the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.
Robert was the featured guest instructor for the 2023 Hawaiʻi Handweavers' Hui annual workshop on Ikat weaving, "a woven resist technique where threads are bound according to a pattern. The threads are then dyed leaving undyed areas where there are resist ties".{{Cite web |title=Hawaii Handweavers' Hui - IKAT WEAVING WITH MARILYN ROBERT |url=https://hawaiihandweavers.org/event-5078126 |access-date=2024-11-02 |website=hawaiihandweavers.org}} Robert also said at the 2023 Association of Northwest Weavers' Guilds, "Ikat weaving remains my favorite, from designing to weaving the piece. I love the technical challenge, and also the particular aesthetic."{{Cite web |date=2020-06-26 |title=Marilyn Robert |url=https://anwgconference.org/archive/2023/marilyn-robert/ |access-date=2024-11-02 |website=ANWG 2023 Conference |language=en-US}}
Selected publications
- {{Cite journal |last=Robert |first=Marilyn |date=Spring 2022 |title=Review: Reiko Sudo. NUNO: Visionary Japanese Textiles |url=https://catalog.lib.kyushu-u.ac.jp/opac_download_md/4843140/007_p103.pdf |journal=Journal of Asian Humanities at Kyushu University |volume=7 |pages=103–105|doi=10.5109/4843140 }}
- {{Cite web |last=Robert |first=Marilyn |date=March 2021 |title=Book Review: The Art of Tapestry Weaving, by Rebecca Mezoff |url=https://www.eugeneweavers.com/book-reports |access-date=2024-10-29 |website=Eugene Weavers Guild}}
- {{Cite web |last=Robert |first=Marilyn |date=September 2020 |title=Book Review: Weave A Weave, by Malin Selander |url=https://www.eugeneweavers.com/book-reports |website=Eugene Weavers Guild}}
- {{Cite web |last=Robert |first=Marilyn |date=September 2020 |title=Book Review: Plantation Slave Weavers Remember, compiled by Mary Madison |url=https://www.eugeneweavers.com/book-reports |website=Eugene Weavers Guild}}
- {{Cite web |last=Robert |first=Marilyn |date=August 2020 |title=Book Review: The Art and Science of Natural Dyes by Joy Boutrup and Catharine Ellis |url=https://www.eugeneweavers.com/book-reports |access-date=2024-10-29 |website=Eugene Weavers Guild}}
- {{Cite journal |last1=Barrett |first1=Annin |last2=Robert |first2=Marilyn |date=September 2009 |title=Reinventing Velvet |url=http://connection.ebscohost.com/c/articles/43645438/reinventing-velvet |journal=Fiberarts |volume=36 |issue=2 |page=50 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200214164416/http://connection.ebscohost.com/c/articles/43645438/reinventing-velvet |archive-date=February 14, 2020 |via=EBSCO}}
Awards, honors
- 2018, The Ford Family Foundation of Roseburg, Oregon: Oregon Visual Artist Mid-Career Residency Award
- 1999 TapRoot Artist Grant
- 1997 Japan Foundation Fellowship Artist Grant{{cite journal |title= Grantee List |journal=The Breeze Quarterly|date=Summer 1997 |publisher = The Japan Foundation & Language Center in Los Angeles|number=15 |url = https://www.jflalc.org/ckfinder/userfiles/files/breeze-pdf/BREEZE15.pdf#page=11| access-date = 29 October 2024|page=11}}
- 1996 Oregon Arts Commission Individual Artist Grant
- 1995 Portland Artquake People's Choice Award{{cite news |title=Art With Humorous Twist Starts Off Tour |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3klWAAAAIBAJ&pg=PA30&article_id=6338,1274639 |access-date=1 November 2024 |work=Eugene Register-Guard |page=11F |date=October 6, 1995}}
- 1995 Honorable Mention, Oregon Biennial Exhibition, Portland Art Museum
See also
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [https://marilynrobert.com/ Website]
- [https://marilynrobert.com/gallery Marilyn Robert – Textile design and art gallery]
- {{YouTube|id=NVrEEwhhgcM|title=Marilyn Robert—textile artist, scholar and teacher}}, (video, 28:24 minutes)
- {{YouTube|id=bOJWrlBiGOM|title=Botanical dyeing}}
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Category:20th-century American women artists
Category:21st-century American women artists
Category:American textile designers
Category:American women textile artists
Category:Artists from Eugene, Oregon