Robert Tomlinson, Black full of language, 2024, Inks on solarized silver gelatin print, 19 x 15 inches, $800.

This series, Love Exists, is based on one image of a nude torso with added texts selected from, Alphabet, a book of poems by Inger Christensen.

love exists, love exists
your hand a baby bird so obviously tucked into mine

the leaves whisper, almost drowning the sky with silence

think like a bird building nests, think like a cloud

detail exists, memory, memory’s light; afterglow exist;

doves exist, dreamer, and dolls killers exist, and doves, and doves

early fall exists; aftertaste, afterthoughts; seclusion and angels exist;

errors exist, instrumental, systemic random; remote control exist, and birds;

branches exist, wind lifting them exists,
and the love drawing made by the branches

and gardens exist, horticulture, the elder trees’ pale flowers, still as a seething hymn

whispering exist, whispering exist, the cells oldest, fondest collusion

doves exist, dreamer, and dolls killers exist, and doves, and doves

This series, Love Exists, is based on one image of a nude torso with added texts selected from, Alphabet, a book of poems by Inger Christensen.

I am a visual artist working in photography, drawing and painting — often combining all three elements into finished works. The images in this submission were created in October, 2023, in the Todd Watts darkroom in Blanchard, ME., while on a month long residency with the Monson Arts Residency program. All are ink on unique silver gelatin prints, 19” x 15” each. I usually alter the image as it is being projected onto the paper before being developed
- R. T.

Robert Tomlinson has served as executive director and curator for The San Jose Institute for Contemporary Art, Gallery One Visual Arts Center and the Oregon Arts Alliance. He has curated and installed over 100 exhibitions and created a gallery for the developmentally disabled. A working artist, Tomlinson has conducted his own studio practice for over 40 years. In 2011 he co-founded 13 Hats, a group of artist and writers that collaborated for two years on a wide range of creative projects and exhibitions. His work has been featured in 35 solo shows and over 50 group exhibitions. Tomlinson has been awarded several artist’s residencies, most recently in 2023 at Monson Arts in Monson, Maine.

Prior to moving to New York in 2017, Tomlinson served on the board for the newly formed, Ash Creek Arts Center in Oregon, which he helped to start. Tomlinson was co-founder & co-editor for the arts & literary quarterly journal, Picture Sentence. He was the “Artist Vision” curator for the Lake Oswego Arts Festival in 2015 and 2016. Tomlinson has hosted two monthly radio shows: Purple House: A Monthly Forum for the Arts, on WGXC and Remarkable People for WIOX. He was also the co-founder & host of the monthly poetry reading at 394 Main St. in Catskill. Until recently, Tomlinson was the director/ curator at the Kaaterskill Gallery for the Catskill Mountain Foundation in Hunter, NY. Currently, in addition to his full-time studio practice, he is the co-founder and president of the board for the Glove Cities Arts Alliance in Gloversville, NY.