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Printer-Friendly ModeUndergrad artist Darabos receives rare honor
March 1, 2010 —
Arriving for an interview in casual clothes and a tattered baseball cap, Robert Darabos hardly fit the stereotype of the genius artist.
In a world filled with larger-thanlife eccentrics such as Picasso, Dali and Pollock, the art senior’s regularguy persona seemed more that of an engineer or biologist than a gifted etcher and printmaker.
Yet that quiet and unassuming demeanor conceals a secret: Darabos may just be the most talented artist working at SVSU today.
So talented, in fact, that this month Darabos has had two of his works accepted into the permanent collection of the Detroit Institute of Arts, one of America’s foremost fine arts museums — an almost unheard-of honor for an undergraduate student.
Recounting how he felt when he heard the news, Darabos was -- true to form — calm and unflappable.
“I was shocked,” he said quietly. “As an artist, you always think your own stuff is good, or you wouldn’t do this.
“But it’s still a surprise to have it accepted in a major museum.”
Darabos’ list of achievements is enough to make his competitors whimper come grad school application time.
Darabos has had eight works published in Cardinal Sins, five of which have won first-place awards, since arriving from Delta College in fall 2007.
That amounts to one award every semester.
Darabos has also showcased his work extensively at juried and nonjuried shows for years, at both local and more far-flung exhibitions.
This includes the Tri-Cities as well as Detroit and Ann Arbor, and points outside the state in Chicago, New York, Seattle, Kansas, Arizona and North Carolina.
Darabos has even displayed his work internationally at galleries in Toronto, Ottawa, Colombia, Australia and England.
He is preparing pieces for group shows in Virginia and Kentucky, as well as international shows in Malaysia and Kyoto, Japan.
Darabos works frequently in etchings, a complex process in which a design is literally etched into metal or acrylic plates with acid or other chemicals. The plates are then inked and used to print the design.
He also makes woodcuts, a form of relief printing in which the designs are carved into wood and then printed onto paper or canvas.
Both pieces accepted into the Detroit Institute of Arts — “Contemplation,” an etching, and “Untitled,” a woodcut — convey a palpable feeling of angst and melancholy.
“Contemplation” features the Birdman, a beaked figure who frequently populates Darabos’ work, staring sadly at a single feather.
When asked about the sense of alienation and loss in his work, Darabos smiled. “I don’t usually intend that,” he said.
“But everyone seems to always say that, so I guess it’s in there.”
Darabos’ color works, on the other hand, often display an interest in abstraction and geometric forms that seems removed from human emotion.
This can be seen in works like “Philosophy of a Song Bird” and “Geometric Compostion I,” a past Cardinal Sins winner.
Darabos has also been cultivating the business side of his art recently, selling paintings on-line as well as working remotely for a Manhattanbased art consulting firm.
Like many artists, he hopes to make a living selling originals and reproductions of his personal works.