Robert Craig Grassle, AIA, is an architect and artist from Missouri. His inspirations come from his family life and professional education.
He learned the use of color and its relationship to emotion from his mother; encouragement with experimentation, creativity, and originality from his father, and persistence from both of his parents.
Born in Mammoth Spring, Arkansas, the artist spent his early childhood near the Mississippi River in the Boothill town of East Prairie, Missouri. Later in childhood, his family moved to the Ozarks–specifically a town named West Plains, Missouri. As a 1977 graduate from West Plains High School, he attributes the beginning of his interest in art composition to his high school art instructor, Roy Hathcock, and his interest in the study of music to his instructor, Tom O’Connor. Both studies would assist him greatly in his eventual architectural design career.
In 1982, he graduated from the Fay Jones School of Architecture at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville Arkansas. Upon graduation, he moved to Texas to begin his architecture career and has been a registered Texas Architect since 1987. He has created structures in Austin, Texas, and Houston, Texas–where he currently resides. His architectural work has typically focused on large higher education, medical, and science technology buildings around Texas.
He is now taking what he has learned through his life experiences and professional career and expressing his concepts in artistic compositions.
His “MIND GAMES” art exhibit in the Hathcock Gallery at the museum will bring his journey full circle, displaying his artwork in the gallery named for his former inspirational high school art instructor. The exhibit will display some of his earlier work, demonstrating the evolution of his art. These pieces utilize bright, vibrant, contrasting, and complimentary colors with free-flowing strokes that illustrate movement and expression. He intentionally places thought in the mind of the observer—by the use of negative space–to create positive images. When analyzing his compositions, the artist suggests you observe the negative space revealing concepts beyond the subject matter.
Mr. Grassle is excited for his first private exhibit “MIND GAMES” to occur in West Plains, Missouri, the community that helped to create and inspire the man himself. The exhibit is open to the public and will be on display from March 10th through April 2nd, with two opportunities to meet the artist during the Artist Receptions: the first will be on March 11 from 3 pm-5 pm, and the second will be on April 1st, from 12 pm-3 pm.
