Funny haha, funny awkward, funny weird — find it all in artist Kristin Robbins' idiosyncratic images of everyday people doing everyday things.
Dead pet portraits on the wall of an elderly couple's living room in a painting inspired by a documentary on pet cemeteries. A dollhouse-like painting inspired by Grey Gardens, a morose film about Jacqueline (Bouvier) Kennedy Onassis' reclusive relatives living in squalor with their countless cats. A laundromat, but with tiny canvases painted to look like washing machine doors, and hinged so they open and close.
Literally anything can be a jumping off point for the artist, whose solo exhibition at Entropy titled "Painted Frames" runs through Feb. 28. It just has to be funny, interesting or both.
"That is one thing I love about drawing and painting, which, I know this isn't a new idea, but I look at things so closely now," Robbins says. "I just pay attention to things so much more, and if I see a person wearing an interesting outfit or a character that's walking down the street, I'll try to sneak a picture."
Robbins isn't trying to capture specific people, although she might have a specific inspiration in mind, like two '80s-era BFFs. Whether waterskiing, disco dancing, birdwatching, bowling or roller skating, the characters' outfits and accoutrements are always the same: One girl wears a Walkman, while the other sports retro robot shades and puffy pigtails — a less crude, female version of Beavis and Butthead.
"My favorite thing is if I'm laughing while I'm painting it," says Robbins, laughing as she points to a painting she's been working on.
It's about a naked woman climbing a tree, based on the tree Robbins can see from the sliding glass door outside her "studio," a rolling cart packed with painting supplies alongside the kitchen table in her lower South Hill condo.
The midcentury modern space also showcases artwork by local artists like Tiffany Patterson, Matt Smith and Jon Swanstrom. There are also paintings a friend did of the family dog, Stamos, the schipperke-chihuahua mix indirectly responsible for Robbins' initial foray into making art.
After Stamos died, a friend suggested Robbins draw the little pooch in a sailor suit in front of a fireplace. The absurdity of it tickled the artist's funny bone.
"I had so much fun that then I did probably 80 to 100 drawings of my dog Stamos in different situations," she says.
Encouraged by the Stamos drawings, Robbins tried rendering him with a paintbrush and had an aha moment.
Now, she says, "I paint all morning because I have [my home] to myself, and then I'm tired of sitting, and so I get to go walk around a school and clean and think about what I want to paint," says Robbins, who works part-time as a custodian for Spokane Public Schools.
"I finally found the job that works so that I can focus on what I want to do a lot."
Although Robbins took art classes in high school and enjoyed doing art projects with her kids as they were growing up, she didn't pursue it as a vocation or hobby until about 10 years ago.
After high school, she and husband, Mark, moved to the west side where both attended different colleges. He pursued education (and teaches at nearby Lewis and Clark High School), but she was still "trying to figure it out," she says of those early years. "And I never did."
Well, not until she discovered her passion for painting. In the meantime, Robbins had figured out the importance of music in her life. Inasmuch as she's making a name for herself as an artist, Robbins is already exceedingly well known in the local music scene.
For more than 20 years, she's played bass for several bands: Heavy Seventeen, The Camaros (with husband Mark), Holy Cows (with husband Mark and son Norman) and BaLonely (with son Norman).
"You know, he really is like one of my best friends," she says about Norman, who's also slated to perform at his mother's upcoming art opening, accompanied by another family musical talent, sister Mertie.
There's another music-art connection via Spokane's Baby Bar. Co-owner Patty Tully was already plenty familiar with Robbins' musical talents, and as bars and restaurants recovered from COVID-related closures, she gave Robbins' art career a little nudge.
"[Patty] knew I was painting, but I had never shown anyone my stuff, so she asked me to do a map of the different bars in town and so I did," Robbins says. It was a hit, and although she didn't do it for money, she ended up selling it to an acquaintance.
"My favorite thing is if I'm laughing while I'm painting it."
Robbins has since participated in three of Terrain's annual art show pop-ups and its annual fundraiser in its Monroe Street gallery space. She's also shown her work at Berserk bar, but is super chill about selling her art.
"It's not about making money," she says, "'Cause I also like the idea of, not only wealthy people [can] buy art. That's a big thing for me."
Another big thing for her is learning to trust her gut, letting the painting dictate what it needs to be, rather than trying to stick to the image she first envisioned at the outset.
"And all of a sudden, it's like, 'Oh, this [painting] was gonna be a woman with a braid, but I guess it's a guy with a mullet,'" she says.
When she begins to second-guess herself, Robbins reads a quote by pop art innovator Andy Warhol that she saved to her phone: "Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art."
And so she does.
"Even if I never sold one piece, I would still work as many hours on it," Robbins says. "I would still make as many paintings." ♦
Painted Frames • Feb. 7-28, reception Fri, Feb. 7 from 5-9 pm; open daily from 11 am-6 pm • Entropy • 101 N. Stevens St. • Instagram: EntropyGallerySpokane • 509-414-3226
