Robert Hubert
Robert Hubert (b. 1961) is a karaoke wiz with a beautiful voice, a good ear, and an eye for color. He is drawn to the intoxicating power of classic rock performances—to sweaty guitar solos, fuzz encrusted riffs, and the live and loud theatrics of long-haired rock gods from Led Zeppelin to Quicksilver Messenger Service, from Ozzy Osborne to Neil Young. Alongside persistent rock’n’roll iconography, Robert’s subjects reflect his deep enthusiasm for automobiles and a lifelong preoccupation with professional sports. He was a competitor in both soccer and basketball in the Special Olympics, and is always in the know about which basketball or football team won the game last night. Robert roots for the Dallas Cowboys and (of course) the Portland Trail Blazers.
Conceived in pencil and eraser shavings followed by more pencil, his initial sketches evolve through a strange world of color. After establishing a meticulous floor plan, Robert uses marker and colored pencil to enliven his drawings with an eerie alertness. Rabbits in a pleasant easter-egg garden take on a special electric strangeness when the whites of their eyes are lit up with hi-lighter pink or yellow.
Cookie cutter clouds and broccoli top trees form patterns in his compositions that recall the placid backdrops of school plays and Saturday morning cartoons. Electric guitars are imbued with the power of rock as Robert traces their strings in wiggly waves from bridge to tuning peg and classic cars become sweet and soft spoken on Prismacolor highways rendered both dreamlike and exact. These delicate studies of his cherished subjects form a collection of scenes he returns to routinely, just as he comes back to the mic for another rendition of a favorite song from his karaoke notebook. Every time, Robert wants the live version.
Robert lives with his mother in Portland, Oregon. He is a practicing artist at Elbow Room, a nonprofit community art studio and gallery dedicated to supporting artists with intellectual and developmental disabilities to develop their creative practice, experiment with new materials, cultivate a portfolio of finished artwork, seek out opportunities for exhibition and professional growth, and build community through friendship and collaboration.
Written by Malcolm & Quinn (Some of the co-founders of Elbow Room)
