Robin Wood

My father was an artist. He always tried to share with me his passion for Art and Culture. When he passed away almost two decades ago, I started to paint as well. At first, it was giving me the ability to stay connected to him in some ways. Now, it feels like he passed on his Artistic and Cultural heritage.

During the day, I’m working as a Design Manager and an Architect in a very stimulating environment in a company called STANTEC. I love working there, as the teams and the projects are very creative and open-minded to the design process. At night, I’m working as an Artist, RobinWood.. I put “my mask” on and do paintings on various materials, such as Canvas, Papers, and even leather. I sign my Arts with RW. Why RobinWood?

I’m a French native. “Robin Hood” is literally translated to “Robin Wood” or “Robin des Bois”. I always loved that story. When I was younger (not that long ago!), I did not realize the proper translation and always translated Robin Hood as Robin Wood. It stayed. Every single piece and project enriches each other day and night. That makes every single project interesting. All experiences and environments nurture an organic, evolving creative process that could be endless.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
I think there is no such thing as a smooth road. Still, we can always decide to live it smoothly. Of course, I had struggles and losses. Today, I feel richer from all these experiences. Most importantly, I decided to be happy with my life. Being an artist is an integral part of my happiness.

Several years ago, I had a cancer. It was a hard time to go through and very struggling moments. My work as an architect and my work as an artist had to stop for several months. Today, the only thoughts I can have about my experience is positive. Obviously because I’m a survivor, but also because I learned so much about myself, about how to apprehend life.. So yes, hard time, struggling moments, but happiness and positive energy at the end of the road! I never give up.

Please tell us more about your art.
As I always say, happiness is an active and creative process, art is a part of it. So why do I create? Designing is not only the answer to be the aesthetic aspect of a project, but it is also a duality between freedom and focus, space and containment, usage and comfort. I create to communicate ideas, innovate concepts, developed projects to make them real through the design process with education and practice. I mainly do painting on canvas and papers. Still, I like to innovate by working in partnership with other creative teams.

Recently I have been painting on leather. “Cabrera Designs” who makes beautiful, unique handmade leather goods, will turn the painted leather into custom unique purses. They will be unique not only because of amazing “Cabrera Designs”, but also because each will be made from one of a kind painted pieces by RW. In the same spirit, I’m working with “Partch”, who does customs hats. I will be designing a line of customizable designs. I will tell and show more on these new projects as they will come along. Stay connected to my website and Instagram account to see more about all these projects.

If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
Never give up. Always fight for happiness.

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