Robert Flinkman
Introduction to Archives
As I now enter my sixth decade and am enjoying my retirement, I felt it was time to review the work I have created both in my journals and my artwork. I've been keeping a journal now for almost 45 years, the first one written when I was a Senior in high school. I have also been creating artwork for an even longer time. I've been asked how it feels to look back, rereading what I wrote all those years ago and looking at the artwork created then. It seems we seem to think that how we were at that current time is how we will always be. But with time and reflection we grow, change, reflect and reform. Certainly I went through such changes, my pen and brush being the creative means to work out those changes. What I have written in my journals and depicted in images in my artwork are a true mirror held up to my past and what I experienced. I stand by every word written and every picture created.
These are only selected excerpts to accompany specific works from the 1970s ,1980s ,1990s and 2000-2010, 2011-2016, 2017-2020,2021-2022. Some excerpts do refer directly to the specific work shown, while other excerpts provide a background concerning what I was experiencing at that time. To have provided the entire collection of journals spanning over 40 decades would be a massive effort, one which indeed is under consideration. My hope is that in viewing the work and reading these entries, one may relate in some way to what I was feeling, thinking, experiencing at that time. I wanted to share with my friends these initially selected writings and their illustrations to gauge their reactions and responses to them. I therefore encourage you to share with me your thoughts , comments and impressions. It is indeed my hope that perhaps a few may indeed find reflected here in these words and pictures a reflection of their own personal experience. In sharing we find perhaps we were not so alone and in that recognition we find support and a true bond.
Robert Flinkman
Albuquerque, New Mexico
8/26/17