Rob White

Posted by Niraj Popat on Jan 15, 2009 in Commercial, Fashion, Lifestyle | 4 comments

Earlier today, I met an interesting Artist, by the name of Rob White.

Rob is a 43 year old ex-Civil Engineer, from Portsmouth.
For the past 4 years, Rob has been trading in construction as a sub-contractor, engineering his own Roofing and Cladding projects for larger organisations.

Three years ago, in an unfortunate accident, Rob was struck down as a pedestrian by a car. He was off from work for 6 months. Having all this time to himself, the opportunity arose to pursue and develop his skills in design. From a young age (as early as 8 years old) he recalls he was always drawing, designing and scribbling his idea’s onto paper. He followed his passion onto O-levels (GCSE equivalent) in Art, where he was bluntly told by his teacher that his idea’s were not suitable for the curriculum being of “too wild and inappropriate” conceptions.
Rob’s idea’s revolve around Surrealist and Tattoo Art. He is influenced by his interest in Biker clubs (Harley Davidson etc…) and a passion for far-eastern design and culture. Combining these (at first glance) opposite realms into a seamless fine-art that can be stretched onto canvas, or tattooed onto your body.

The idea’s work very well, as his very close friends, Scott and Anna, also from Portsmouth own a jewellery and tattoo parlour, called ‘The Gold Shop’.
Anna has tattooed several of Rob’s design onto his body for him, making Rob a walking, talking biogallery of his own work.

This is where Rob finds his inner peace, in his world, within ours.
Often up till the early hours of the morning, losing track of time, when engrossed so deep onto the paper that he engraves.
It is his complete inner expression, letting his pen dance around the paper, never knowing what the finished design will look like, until it is finished.

Here is some of the work he had with him today, that he was able to show me.

The Dragon

We can clearly see a relationship with the Dragons from Chinese or Oriental history. The dragon is a mythical creature portrayed to have a very dark and evil presence and is a potent symbol in Chinese art and folklore.

The Gazelle

Gazelle’s are known as quiet but quick animals. They originate from Africa, but can also be found in southwest and central asia, and on the Indian subcontinent. The animal is able to reach high speeds of up to 50mph, in the blink of an eye. Often the prey of larger animals such as lions and cheetahs.

The Chrysanthemum

Not something you would possibily expect to see from Rob White’s collection, but beautiful nevertheless.

The Heartagram

The heartagram, is best described as a combination of a heart and an inverted pentagram (love & hate). The idea of any symbol representing an inverted pentagram is said to be of evil nature, but here in this combination, Rob has merged the symbol of love. Completely opposing the evil (hate characteristic). You could say the heartagram is a “Modern Yin Yang”.
Inscribed within is the line “Suffer the brilliance of the beautiful white light of pain” which will have a unique meaning to all, but to Rob is a relationship between the pain and pleasure of a tattoo.

I hope to bump into Rob again in the future, where hopefully he will share with us more of his designs.

If you would like to contact Rob for the commissioning of any special designs or perhaps idea’s you would like to discuss with him, please drop me a message, and I will forward you his details, with his permission.