Meet The Artist: Bobbi Van—working from stillness

Published May 3rd, 2022

Often, when speaking to artists you find out that they began practicing their art very early in life—strumming a guitar as a toddler, drawing with crayons on the floor, writing poetry in kindergarten. But sometimes an “art soul” remains hidden from the artist for many years, only emerging after something compels it to come to the surface. Such is the story of Bobbi Van.

Bobbi’s entire career in New York City revolved around the business. For many years she was a “start-up queen,” who was the force behind several major magazines, curating TED talks. She was living and working in Manhattan and began looking toward retirement, but without any concrete plans as to where she would go or do. Throughout those years her connection to the art world was in collecting pieces of art, always abstract rather than figurative. Then her mother died in 2001 and for a moment the world stopped and Bobbi found herself at a crossroads. She heard a voice inside that commanded: “Paint!”

There was an empty studio in Tribeca and she took it, not even having yet a plan of what she would be doing and how. But then someone brought her a piece of plexiglass and she decided to paint on it, and just like that, it became her medium. For the next three months, Bobbi went into total silence, distancing herself from the outside world to concentrate on creating art—and she loved it. The combination of solitude and total dedication to an emerging passion brought her artist’s soul to the surface. During that period of three months, she began to develop a unique style, a sense of what she wanted to create; she says those pieces of art “come out of stillness.”

When the three-month gig at the studio was up, Bobbi was fortunate to find another empty studio available for a few months more. And when that period came to an end, she was able to negotiate a long-term lease and the studio became hers for the next five years. It was clear by this time that what she was doing was significant and she had been recognized by the public as well. She had an art dealer and was selling her pieces. Then another event turned everything on its head. Both her studio and apartment were suddenly unavailable and in one fell swoop, she lost both a home base and a workspace. Once more she had to recreate herself. She put everything in storage with the idea to travel around the world.

In the 1980s Bobbi had come to San Miguel and loved it, so she decided to visit again, although she didn’t know anyone here. She put a notice on FB, asking who had friends in San Miguel. Forty people responded and she suddenly had many connections to tap into in the city. In 2017 she arrived here and shortly after sold everything she had in NY and moved here for good.

Bobbi Van’s work is definitely abstract. She has continued to work with plexiglass and what she does with it is fascinating, both in the process and the final result. She works backward. What this means is that she takes a clear piece of plexiglass and paints on it; however, the process is in reverse. Usually, when an artist paints, there is a base coat of some sort and the layers are painted after coming to the foreground. That is not so with reverse painting, because the final product will be viewed in reverse. The first layers of paint will eventually be the foreground of the painting, and each additional stroke of paint recede into the background. “It’s like peeling an onion and then reconstructing it layer by layer,” says Bobbi. How does a painter know what the final result will be? One has to be what Bobbi considers herself—an intuitive painter. Someone who trusts her skill and sense of artistic direction, letting her instinct guide her. When painting, she enters a meditative state which allows her to “bring the invisible to the visible.”

Plexiglass is not the only material Bobbi works with. She likes using soft vinyl which can be shaped after being painted, resulting in completely abstract, one-of-a-kind pieces. Bobbi also likes to build, using heavy gauge vinyl, and appending other materials until the final multi-media sculpture comes to life. You can find out more about Bobbi’s work and visit her studio at: bobbivanstudio.com.