Posts Tagged ‘mural’

Rob Cleland was born and raised in Charleston West Virginia. His earliest art experience that he can recall was drawing a volcano at a friends house. He attributes his love of art to his dad who would pay him two cents for a black and white drawing and five cents for color when he was little. Cleland had no artistic training until college. He spent one year at West Virginia University studying art and then went to the Institute of Pittsburgh and got an Associates Degree in Visual Communications.

photo by Alex Wilson

Rob Cleland is an artist located in Charleston, West Virginia. He does mainly printmaking and painting. His artwork is on display in several local galleries in Charleston. 

Rob Cleland began working as an airbrush artist in a mall as well as doing screen printing for a company called Balzout. He then attended WVSC from 1990-1994 receiving a bachelors degree in communications. Later he went back to school from 2001-2003 to receive a Masters in Printmaking from Marshall University.

Inspirations/Admirations
When it comes to inspiration for his artwork, Cleland believes the moment is his biggest inspiration. “The moment is probably my biggest inspiration. I feel most inspired with challenging work or when a problem comes up and a solution has to be found.” Even so, he still likes to visit the library, other galleries, and Kanawha State Forest for even more inspiration- giving truth to his statement that “inspirations are all over the place.”

Rob Cleland’s favorite work of his own is “Carlita at Kirby” to most onlookers this drawing would seem just a beautiful drawing of a dog playing in the water. However, to Rob Cleland the drawing has more sentimental value. The dog, Carlita, was a family dog that has since passed away and his parents have sold the house where the original photo was taken. Rob Cleland said this work is his favorite because for him it holds a lot of memories.

Rob Cleland also enjoys other artist’s works and a few of his favorites are Robert Villamanga, Stan Sporny, and Henry Koerner. He enjoys Sporny and Koerner’s work especially because they use abstract paint strokes that eventually form a realistic image when viewed from a distance.

Current and Future Works
Recently, Cleland has been working on a letter “R” for this year’s Festival posters. He also will be participating, along with other artists, in United Methodist’s “Stations of the Cross Show.” Cleland’s station is the one where Peter denies Christ three times before the cock crows. Furthermore, he has been scheduled to do an illustration of the capitol building burning for the Midland Trail as well as working on some paintings and assemblages of robots.