Senior studio art major Caitlin Robinson was like many teenagers – she thought she was not good at anything. That changed when she took an advanced art class – one she had to fight to get into – and her teacher encouraged her to pursue art.

Robinson, 25, has been an artist in the making for the past seven years. Robinson started out at an early age with watercolors and crayons, but quickly gave up on her art until her senior year at Mira Loma High School.

Robinson was making final touches right up to the last days before her first solo exhibit, “Cellular Veil,” which opened Monday and runs through Friday in the Witt Gallery, with a reception Friday from 6 to 9 p.m.

Celso Dalisay, senior studio art major, respects his classmate. From wire to painting on canvas to an old worn and torn desktop, Dalisay said Robinson is not afraid to experiment.

He said Robinson used to be more conservative in her artwork than she is now.

“What I really respect about her is she is really willing to experiment with unconventional techniques,” Dalisay said. “Oftentimes she will work with tactile and rubber surfaces – she’s willing to put dirt in with her paint.”

Robinson has 11 works of art displayed for her exhibit, each of which, she said, is based on the cellular structure of the human body.

“It’s based on the principal that everything we sense is through cells,” Robinson said. “Our bodies are created out of cells. You sense where you are in space based on the nerves that you have in your body, so we are stuck with a lens blur called cells.”

The mediums for her art are painting with acrylic and spray paint, and drawing with marker on multiple different surfaces. She has been experimenting with spray paint on still-wet acrylic, which looks like bacteria growing, Robinson said.

The message in her art work is life is beautiful in every form, even in horrible microbes that kill people, Robinson said.

Robinson has CD-size pieces, which hang in sculpture form, to 4 feet by 5 feet canvases to a 3-by-15 banner. The banner is Robinson’s largest work of art so far. Some artwork is on a surface of stretched canvas, and some on raw canvas.

A canvas is a universal term that artists use for the cloth and the support. But it is also the name of the cloth, which is heavy-duty cotton that can be painted on. Robinson refers to raw canvas as a canvas without support.

Robinson said the banner in her exhibit is approximately 70 years old. It was an old advertising banner that was no longer being used, so she snagged it and put it to use.

When Robinson works on her artwork, she creates some of it at Sac State and the rest at home in her backyard. Robinson said she sets up lights and works on gravel and her patio.

Robinson’s current mentor is Associate Professor of Art Sarah Flohr. Robinson also has people like her mother who inspire her. Robinson said she is also inspired by artists and scientists, such as Rosalind Franklin, who helped in the understanding of DNA.

“(Franklin) inspires me because she got no notice whatsoever, but she still kept working,” Robinson said.

Robinson said she is looking toward her future in which she plans to purchase a small studio space. She also wants to achieve an early childhood education certificate in order to work with children and teach them art.

Robinson said she likes to expand on the human body in her art rather than simply paint the human body.

“Partially I do biological things because I find the human figure boring,” Robinson said. “I prefer to paint or draw what is on the human figure, versus the human figure itself.”

Courtney Owen can be reached at [email protected].