From the Studio
The
Work
Examined.
Studio updates and notes on each painting in A Seat at the Table, in Robert Hightower's own words - what each piece is built from, and what it's actually about.
Featured Notes
Where the Title Came From: Inside Aftermath
Three chairs, set out in a marsh, like someone was expecting company that never came - or already left. This is the piece that gave the whole show its name.
Studio Update
Building A Seat at the Table
Twenty-six paintings, one gallery, one date on the calendar. Some notes on what the last year in the studio has actually looked like.
Studio Notes
Kids Chair
I built this chair from memory, not observation - the pink of it isn't a color I saw, it's a color I needed. Red rooms hold heat the way certain…
Studio Notes
The Field
Some days the ground itself feels like it's on fire, and it isn't a metaphor - it's just where the light lands. I painted this fast, with my hands…
Studio Notes
Studio Apt
An empty couch, lit by a sky that's about to go dark. I think about all the conversations that happen on furniture like this - the ones that end…
Studio Notes
Code Switch
This one didn't come easy. The figure has no face, because I didn't want it to be about one specific person - including me, even though it started as…
Studio Notes
By the Window
Sometimes a painting isn't about anything except getting the weight right - how much gold can sit next to how much red before one of them wins. I…
Studio Notes
Night and Day
Two doors, or two windows, or the same opening painted twice from two different moods. I go back and forth on what I was trying to let in versus keep…
Studio Notes
A Quiet Place
People don't usually paint this moment, because it's not supposed to be beautiful - and that's exactly why I painted it. She's not posed for anyone.…
Studio Notes
A Lone Chair
One chair, nobody sitting in it, no table in sight yet. This was the first painting where I understood what this whole series was going to be about -…
Studio Notes
Venice Beach
A room that wants to be cheerful and can't quite get there - the flower is alive, the vase is soft pink, and everything is still dripping like the…
Studio Notes
Closing Time
Two chairs facing each other over a table that isn't really there - just a black shape doing the work a table would do. I painted them white because…
Studio Notes
Windows
No furniture in this one, which is rare for this body of work - just color doing what color does when you take everything else away. I wanted to see…
Studio Notes
Doors
A landscape that isn't a place I've been so much as a place I go to in my head when a room gets too small. The shapes read like they could be…
Studio Notes
The Hot Seat
Kitchen stools on a floor that's almost too cheerful for what I was feeling when I painted it. There's something about a checkerboard pattern that…
Studio Notes
Blue Chair
The quietest painting in this collection. Green doesn't shout the way red does, and this chair isn't demanding anything from you - it's just sitting…
Studio Notes
Screen Door
A room split down the middle - cool on one side, warm on the other - the way a single space can hold two completely different moods depending on…
Studio Notes
Palm Springs
Two fields of red sitting next to each other, close enough to touch, different enough to never fully agree. I think about family this way sometimes -…
Studio Notes
Discussions
The chair stays put in this one. It's the dark shape coming apart at the edge of the checkerboard that's doing all the talking - reaching, gesturing,…
Studio Notes
New Beginnings
I let this one be gentle. After so many empty chairs, I wanted a seat that wasn't waiting on grief - a bench, low light, flowers already coming up…
Studio Notes
Pink Problems
I went back to the marsh from "Aftermath" for this one, except now there are five chairs instead of three, and I still can't tell you who they're…