Title: Tenacious
Artist: Rebecca Robinson
Medium and Materials: Translucent Italian agate, an antique cast-iron shoe-lasting form, and an unpolished regional granite plinth
Dimensions: 10.5" H × 16" W × 6" D (a wide, horizontal tabletop sculpture)
This contemporary mixed-media sculpture explores the poetic tension among industry, movement, and geological time. A heavy, unyielding antique iron cobbler’s shoe form is paired with a continuous, hand-carved ribbon of Italian agate that undulates across a raw granite block. Rendered as a fluid, fabric-like wave, the stone evokes resilience, endurance, and grace emerging from structural weight.
Gallery Description
In Tenacious, contemporary sculptor Rebecca Robinson bridges industrial Americana and fine European stone carving in a highly tactile composition. The work is built on a striking contrast of materials and planes. At the left, a historic cast-iron shoe form anchors the sculpture; its deep chocolate-plum patina and rough, pitted surface suggest decades of domestic labor and practical use.
From the open collar of this iron anchor emerges the work’s technical centerpiece: a continuous ribbon of hand-carved Italian agate. Carved into a remarkably thin sheet, the stone rises and falls in cresting waves and fabric-like loops that extend horizontally to the right. Ambient gallery light passes through its milky-white, cream, and soft amber veining, giving the agate a luminous, nearly weightless presence.
Both elements are permanently mounted on a thick rectangular plinth of regional gray granite. Rough, hand-chiseled edges ground the sculpture with organic, architectural strength. Through precise edge control, an assured understanding of stone, and expert material handling, Robinson transforms this tabletop work into a powerful, meditative statement suited to a serious fine art collection.
Style and Composition
- Artistic Style: Contemporary material abstraction, kinetic mixed-media realism, and post-industrial sculpture.
- Composition: A horizontal, asymmetric arrangement. A tall, dark iron form anchors the left side, while a long ribbon of light-catching stone carries the eye across the rough, geometric granite base.
- Focal Point: The high-contrast junction where the luminous cream-colored agate emerges from the dark, light-absorbing opening of the iron shoe-lasting form.
- Color Palette: A refined neutral spectrum of milky alabaster white, cream, and soft champagne amber in the agate, contrasted with espresso-charcoal iron and mottled salt-and-pepper gray granite.
- Lighting and Atmosphere: Direct overhead lighting makes the carved agate folds appear to glow from within and casts soft purple shadows across the granite, creating a quiet, majestic, and powerful gallery presence.
Materials and Technique
- Carving and Manipulation: Fine-tool reduction shapes the agate into fluid, multi-tiered bends. Grinding, smoothing, and polishing make the brittle mineral resemble silk or flowing liquid.
- Surface Contrast: The glassy polish of the agate is set against the pitted oxidation of the historic iron and the rough crystalline grain of the split granite.
- Mounting and Engineering: Core-drilled construction secures the components flush to the stone plinth with concealed tension rods. This hidden support preserves the ribbon loops’ weightless, floating effect without visible adhesive.
