Robert Charland

Robert Charland was born in Bridgeport Connecticut in 1954 where he spent much of his youth making art. Not sure what to do with his future, he joined the Navy at age 17, where he realized that he wanted to make art his life and career. Robert used the GI bill to attend Housatonic Community College in Bridgeport, where he studied with the late Bert Chernow.

Charland moved to California in 1978 to continue his studies at CSU Sacramento where he studied painting and printmaking and was influenced by John Fitzgibbon. It was at CSUS that he met Peter VandenBerge and Arthur Gonzales and began to notice the impressive tradition of ceramic funk sculpture in the Sacramento Valley and Bay Area. He left school and began teaching himself ceramic sculpture, building his first kiln in his backyard in midtown Sacramento. He began using images recalling his working class background. Included in these is the story of his paternal grandfather who with his twin brother ran away to join the circus at age 13 and had many years as an acrobat and an entertainer, many of those on the Vaudeville circuit. Charland says, "When I knew my grandfather he was the fisherman, he always had a small outboard motor boat that he used to go fishing and clamming out on Long Island Sound when conditions were good. During the summer we would often join him," adding, " I think that my youth on the water was an early influence on the way I think about forms and perspectives.”

Charland also adds imagery derived from his own life experiences, such as his years working in the restaurant industry and then as a tile man. His use of humor has given way to his most recent body of work, his everyday clowns.