Robmarie López
Robmarie López is a Puerto Rican-born artist and writer whose creative journey has spanned literature, psychology, graphic design, and art history. Raised in a family that prized education, López was immersed in reading and writing from an early age—supported by her mother and three aunts, all English teachers. While art was often seen as a pastime rather than a profession, she found joy in painting, experimenting with color, and even raiding her grandmother’s nail polish to paint rainbows. Writing became her “safer” creative outlet, leading to early successes publishing poetry in newspapers and winning a prize at a literary festival.
Though she initially pursued a career in psychology, earning a Ph.D. and completing postdoctoral research, López never stopped “arting.” From teaching herself drawing and digital tools like Paint Shop Pro during the Y2K era to eventually pivoting back into design, her path reflects resilience and reinvention. That pivot crystallized in California, where she embraced graphic design, earning an associate degree in Graphic Art and Design at Rio Hondo College and later a master’s in Modern and Contemporary Art History at Azusa Pacific University. These studies gave her both technical confidence and an expansive understanding of the art world, emboldening her to embrace experimentation and her own aesthetic voice.
Today, López paints primarily in acrylics but also explores photography and collage. Her recent series reimagines photographs taken “in transit”—such as snapshots of pigeons during her morning commute—translating fleeting encounters into meditative painted studies. Her work reflects a Warholian love of repetition, using reiteration as both exploration and meditation.
Her creative philosophy embraces inspiration from everyday surroundings: a train ride, a sunset, an unexpected kindness. Works like Poetic Cinema transform fleeting moments of awe into lasting reflection, celebrating how the mundane can reveal truth and beauty. When faced with creative blocks, López turns to her scholarly side, writing and publishing studies on Post-Impressionist artists such as Suzanne Valadon and Paul Gauguin.
Looking forward, she aspires for her art to live “happy and productive lives” as objects of introspection. She hopes her colorful simplicity inspires tentative artists to pick up a brush, or viewers to see life with greater artistic awareness—proof that creativity, in all its forms, has the power to expand perspective and deepen experience.
