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Cynthia RobinsonCynthia Robinson always knew she was going to be a painter—until she went on an archaeological dig with a medieval art professor to Tours, France, after her junior year at the College of William & Mary. She returned with a passion for the medieval world and graduated with high honors in 1984 with a degree in art history; her honors thesis was about medieval Spain.Before immersing herself in graduate school at the University of Pennsylvania, Robinson traveled to Europe where she picked grapes, cherries and plums, waitressed and sat as an artist's model. As a graduate student, she returned often to Europe and Egypt, studying Arabic in Cairo for a year and researching and writing her dissertation in Spain over a five-year period. |
| The dissertation, which looked at poetry and ornament in Islamic Spain in the 11th century, received a prize from the Middle Eastern Studies Association in 1996. Preferring to read a book in the language in which it was written, Robinson took it upon herself to learn Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, German and Arabic. She can even read and understand Medieval Latin. Once, she wanted to use an Islamic love story in a class and wasn't satisfied with the translation. "So I translated it myself," she says. |
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| Joining the Art and Art History Department this fall as its Medieval/Renaissance expert, Robinson has begun redesigning the curriculum to reflect her all-inclusive approach to teaching medieval and Islamic art. "For me they are inseparable," she comments. "Putting things into stylistic sorts of boxes isn't the way the people who made the art saw it. In my research, I try to revisit the original historical, literary and liturgical sources." As a result, her teaching style detours from the standard slide-memorization format. "I like the idea of going to a banquet where there is more food than you can eat," she explains. "I take that approach to teaching. I'd rather give them too much." Robinson also enjoys exposing students to the Muslim world, of which most Americans are ignorant, she has discovered. She currently is working on In Praise of Song: the Making of Courtly Culture in al-Andalus and Provence, 11th and 12th Centuries A.D., which is expected to be published in about a year. Another project is the translation and study of the only illustrated medieval Arabic manuscript from Spain, a 13th century love story. In her spare time, Robinson enjoys long-distance cycling and lifting weights. |
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Yoshiko ShimanoThroughout her childhood in Tokyo, Japan, Yoshiko Shimano was aware of an influential United States culture; by the time she was a teenager, she knew she wanted to check it out. |
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| She studied English at California State University at Hayward through an exchange program, but quickly transferred to California College of Arts and Crafts, where she earned a bachelor of fine arts degree in 1987. She went on to Mills College in Oakland, Calif., where she earned a master of fine arts degree in 1991. Despite her immersion into U.S. culture, Shimano remains tied to her Japanese roots through her printmaking projects, which are rooted in traditional Japanese woodcuts. Shimano still has prints she made in elementary school and remembers making woodcut greeting cards for friends, a common practice in her homeland. Her involvement with art goes back to her childhood, when her older sisters would attend music lessons but she preferred staying home with an array of pastels and crayons. Shimano's current work is inspired by nature, but involves a personal vision as well. For example, her work, The Beginning, was created to support her father, who was suffering from cancer. It began with the image of blooming cherry blossoms, which coincide with the beginning of the school year in Japan. "You don't see the individual trees—they are an illusion meant to signify the coming into a new life," she says. "Through this indirect process, I get a more objective way to see my work and myself. I also like to share my life through my art work." Shimano will return to Tokyo next summer for a show of her work. During the trip, she hopes to connect with young Japanese printmakers and bring back some of their work. "I'd like to be a bridge between Eastern and Western cultures, printmaking and otherwise," she says. Shimano always has enjoyed teaching—it satisfies a desire to become familiar with the culture through people; she especially enjoys establishing relationships with people from other countries. |
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UNM's strong printmaking reputation and commitment to traditional techniques attracted Shimano to the College of Fine Arts, where she is a new assistant professor of printmaking. |
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Left: Four Days of Silence--Departure. Wood cut and Monoprint on paper by Yoshiko Shimano. 19" x 58". CSUH Art Gallery. Right: Wind, Breath, & Holy Spirit. Woodcut on Japanese rice paper by Yoshiko Shimano. 120" x 80". CSUH Art Gallery. |
She looks forward to re-examining her teaching methods in an effort to encourage students to expand their own articulation. "I'm interested in seeing how students use printmaking as a tool to express themselves," she says. "As long as I see an honest, sincere way to be sensitive to themselves, I feel so gifted to be teaching." |
| Shimano also looks forward to taking advantage of the Tamarind Institute, re-educating herself in the technique of lithography. Although she misses the watery landscape of San Francisco Bay, Shimano has found a replacement in New Mexico's ever-changing sky. "I always have slide film in my camera and wherever I go, I shoot pictures of the sky in its many forms." |
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Baochi ZhangOddly enough, China's repressive cultural revolution in the mid-1900s propelled Baochi Zhang into the world of art. Like his friends in his hometown of Xi'an, China, Zhang stayed home from school because of many years of stormy chaos in the country. To pass the time, he copied comic books. |
| When he turned 16, Zhang enlisted in the army and, again, to help pass the time, he taught drawing to his fellow soldiers. By the time he left the army the revolution had ended, and with art now his strongest faculty, Zhang was accepted at the Xi'an College of Fine Arts. "I didn't like the school because the teachers always wanted you to follow their art style, which I really hated, says Zhang, who this fall joined the faculty in the Department of Art and Art History. After earning a bachelor of fine arts degree, Zhang turned to art history and moved on to the Academy of Arts of China in Beijing, where he earned a master's degree in art theory in 1985. After two years as assistant editor of Chinese Art Magazine in Beijing, Zhang received a fellowship from Florida State University. Although he was accepted into the school's post-graduate art history program, after a year Zhang returned to the studio, beginning with painting then gravitating toward sculpture. Zhang's work, which continues to be influenced by-- both painting and sculpture, blurs the boundary line between classical categories. "I don't pay much attention to categories," he says. "I think works are works, they either hang on the wall or sit on the floor." His latest involves the use of digital computers as he explores his fascination with the contradiction of illusion and reality. After earning a master of fine arts degree in 1990, Zhang taught at the University of California at Davis for nine years. This semester he is teaching courses in two- dimensional design and painting at UNM. Even though he never thought he would pursue teaching, Zhang thoroughly enjoys encouraging and following the progress of serious art students. "It's great becoming friends and having life-long relationships with students from all across the country," he says. "And teaching is a nice way to exchange ideas with other people." Zhang appreciates the congenial relationship between the art history and studio faculty at UNM, which he considers is in the best interest of the students. Although he doesn't separate his work from his life, figuring the arts is a way of life, Zhang does find time to swim an hour a day and listen to classical music. He became a U.S. citizen last January. |
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Newsletter Editor: Ellen K. Ashcraft; Assistant Editor: Kate Downer; Writer: Nancy Harbert; Graphic Designer: Michael T. Sanchez; Webpage Editor: Ana Marie Mowrer |
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