Annie Murphy-Robinson

A Discovery of Self

- By Christine Egnoski

Casey and Buffalo Americana, charcoal on paper, 42 x 66 (101 x 167 cm)

"All my work is about moving through life’s difficulties, and it’s always been informed, whether it was subconscious or not, by my own experience in the past.”

— Annie Murphy-Robinson

Power and vulnerability share the space within the frame of Annie MurphyRobinson’s artwork, both ever-present in her figurative work. “My work allows the viewer to glimpse a private world of the female— hesitant, insecure, and often unaware of the power that they hold. My own experience as a young adult was both beautiful and traumatic,” says Annie.

As a young girl growing up in Heron, Montana, Annie had a passion for art and spent her hard-earned allowance on art lessons with a local teacher, Mrs. Barbara Mullens. She taught Annie how to draw animals, but it was portraits that Annie longed to create, and so she begged her mom to buy her “How to Draw” books and spent her elementary school years learning how to draw people. During her teenage years, Annie’s family moved first to Tucson, Arizona, then to Phoenix, interrupting her trajectory of a possible career in the arts. In her adolescence, she struggled with substance abuse, eventually running away from home and dropping out of high school. She joined the Army at age 17 and later continued her college education where she majored in art with a concentration in painting.