ARTIST ROBERTA CORY
I am a three-dimensional mixed media artist who has been making standing and wall-hung constructions since 1990. I have a BA degree and secondary teaching credential from the University of California, Davis. I have a Masters with distinction in Philosophy of Art from California State University, Chico. I have taught art at the intermediate, secondary, and university levels.I came to Canada from Northern California in 1999 for love, marrying my husband Rory in 2000.
Immediately I was struck by the yellow brick buildings of downtown London, and I spent hours wandering the back alleys and laneways with my camera, recording the mystery and strangeness of my new environment. The low relief constructions I made, based upon collages of my photos, were very popular on the London Open Studio Tours, and were seen and sold in many shows in the early 2000s.
In 2004, I became a grandmother three times in seven months and all three babies lived in California with my daughters. So, in 2005 we moved to Victoria in order to be closer to family. While in Victoria, I was one of the founders of the Vic West Art Quest, our studio tour. A newspaper article warned me that the famous 1920s Tudor revival Oak Bay Beach Hotel was going to be demolished, so I took photos of it immediately and did a series of six pieces. The site has since been rebuilt as a hotel/condominium complex in a Mediterranean style.
From the moment I saw the Thamesford Mill in 2003, I knew I wanted to do some pieces about it. The silos and the stark geometry of the buildings in the clarity of full sunlight were abstract pure sculpture to me. The mill was familiar because of my agricultural background in the Central Valley of California where grain silos dot the landscape. I was not able to do the Thamesford Mill series until we returned to London in 2010. One piece of this series toured as part of the Thamesford Mill Travelling Exhibition which opened at Elm Hurst Inn in December 2012 and concluded at the Thamesford Library on April 19, 2013. Sadly, the Thamesford Mill building was demolished.
I have been a political activist all my adult life, in California and in London. After no sales on 2014 London Artists Studio Tour, I turned my energy towards progressive politics as Chair of the Council of Canadians, London, channeling my creativity into prop-making for progressive actions. After several years battling cancer, my husband died, and I have been trying to find myself as an artist ever since. Not only did I lose the love of my life, but I lost his technical support which enabled my career to flourish.
I am very grateful to Al Stewart, owner of Westland Gallery of London, Ontario. Al gave me the incentive to return to my art career by inviting me to participate in the International Women's Day show at the Westland Gallery in March 2026. I finally found a way to combine activism and art by featuring environmental and social issues in my work. “The Air We Breathe” is based upon photos of the refineries of Chemical Valley in Sarnia when we joined the Toxic Tour, an educational project of the Aamjiwnaang First Nation who live on the reserve next to the plants. At least once a week their lives are disrupted as a siren blares to warn them to take shelter due to a high level of toxic chemicals in the air. They are deeply engaged in political and legal actions to preserve their health and all profits from the sale of my piece will go to their cause.
My influences are pop art, assemblage, collage (in particular the work being done today by Black artists), and non-Western composition as seen in Byzantine art, 18th-century Moghul Miniatures, and Medieval Alter pieces. Space is shown by overlap and stacking, from bottom to top. I am a hunter-gatherer. Because I have an extensive background in art history and architecture, I see the existential possibilities in the cast-off objects of our culture. As they are either free or inexpensive, I can cut them up and recombine them to make a statement or tell a story. Ironically, while I sequester plastic in the piece, I use acrylics and glues that come from the plastic industry.