Layers of Meaning

Aminah Brenda Lynn Robinson

In late September 2004, a Columbus, Ohio fiber artist, Aminah Brenda Lynn Robinson, received a MacArthur Fellows Grant. These grants provide $500,000 to "talented individuals who have shown extraordinary originality and dedication in their creative pursuits and a marked capacity for self-direction."
"Aminah Robinson uses fabric, needlepoint, paint, ink, charcoal, clay, and found objects to create signature works on canvas and in three-dimensional construction. Folk artist, storyteller, and visual historian, Robinson celebrates and memorializes the neighborhood of her childhood Poindexter Village in Columbus, Ohio, and her journeys to and from her home. In drawings, paintings, sculpture, puppetry, and music boxes, she reflects on themes of family and ancestry, and on the grandeur of simple objects and everyday tasks. Her works are both freestanding monuments and fractional components of an ongoing odyssey. Robinson is a master of assemblage; her elegant collages are Homeric in content, quantity, and scale (some canvases are 20 feet or larger) and many of her exhibited pieces are works-in-progress, several years in the making." 2004 MacArthur Fellows Biography

The Columbus Enquirer newspaper describes Robinson's work, "The RagGonNon for the Freedom Center is on a long table in the basement. She rolls it up on both ends to work on its intricate surface. "There's a lot of work to do," she says, shaking her head. "It's a lot of work to do in a year." She's not sure how long this portion is. She has never seen it unraveled. When the other half of the piece was about to go to the Columbus Museum of Art, curators brought it to a large room at the museum to unfurl and see in its entirety."

Robinson doesn't limit her work to strictly fiber. Capital University has a collage on fig leaf by Robinson. That same collection also includes a Figure Study Triptych, done in watercolor and ink. From her constant creativity, Robinson has also illustrated several children's books, including Elijah's Angel: A Story for Chanukah and Christmas, The Shaking Bag and A Street Called Home.