By Susan Swagler
There’s an art-filled – and heartfelt – celebration of life happening at The Joy Gallery in Homewood. A colorful, vibrant show honoring the life and the art of the late Robin Nance Metz is on display until March 12, 2023.
Metz’s vivid, whimsical paintings, some of her early work as a graphic artist and the clay sculptures she did later in life are on display in the gallery along with a portrait of Metz painted by gallery curator Tom Dameron and some moving and meaningful bronze sculptures by her husband, Ted Metz. The two men curated this show together.
It’s a show that Robin Metz agreed to do months ago, but she died before it could happen. Robin, who lived in Montevallo, passed away at the age of 62 on Sept. 23.
Ted said Robin was excited about the show – her third in The Joy Gallery.
“Her plan for this show was to do 20 or 30 small paintings. She knew she didn’t have as much energy,” he said, “she didn’t have as much studio time.”
The 8-by-10 works that she was painting at the end of her life are displayed in the middle of the room. The subjects vary but all are playful, joyful pieces. There’s a photo of Robin painting her final piece. She’s smiling.
Robin was born in Nashville, but she spent much of her adult and professional life in Alabama. She attended Homewood High School, then she studied graphic design and illustration at the University of Montevallo and Auburn University and worked as a commercial artist for 20 years. A portrait of one of her children is what led her to a career in fine art. She showed it to Dameron one day, and he told her: “This is great. You should do more of these.” So, she did.
“I loved this sweet person and have promoted her art and have collected it over the years,” Dameron said. “She was the first artist to ever show at The Joy Gallery 10 years ago and has always been a favorite.”
Sun Symbol
Robin was a favorite of many.
Even as she was fighting stage 4 pancreatic cancer, Robin brightened the lives of others through her art. Specifically, her suns – both paintings and sculptures – ended up reaching millions of people.
Ted said Robin was diagnosed in March 2020 and she decided to send some of her work to CBS Sunday Morning, which features sun artwork from artists across the country between segments.
“CBS Sunday Morning was always our favorite thing to do on Sunday morning,” Ted said. “When Robin got cancer she said, ‘You know, what do I have to lose? I’m going to go ahead and write (to the person who selects the artwork) and send in a few suns and see what happens.’”
What happened is that more than 20 of her suns were featured on the show over the past few years. The first one was on Mother’s Day, Ted said.
A few weeks ago, when the program aired a segment on people lost in 2022, they featured Pope Benedict and Queen Elizabeth and Barbara Walters, Ted said, “and Robin was in that, too.” They featured members of the CBS Sunday Morning team, he said, and “it was interesting that she led that group.”
Robin spoke with Bham Now in 2021, about a year after her diagnosis and after her seventh sun had been featured on the news show, and she said: “I am so happy that I have been given the opportunity to show people that hope is a good thing and it is real. You’ve got to focus on the good stuff. If you don’t, you’ll miss the sun, the moon, the cup of coffee on the front porch and the laughter of life.”
The show at The Joy Gallery is a room full of good stuff – dazzlingly colorful and wonderfully whimsical good stuff that spans her career as a commercial artist and then as a creator of fine art. There are cats and fish, moons and suns, a woman wearing a flowerpot as a hat.
Ted said her art is “especially approachable. It makes you smile.” The three-dimensional pieces – the sculptures she did with him – show she was not afraid to venture out of her comfort zone.
None of the art is for sale. The show is meant as a memorial to Robin – a way to simply celebrate her life and her contributions to the lives of others.
Ted said Robin had plenty of hardship during her life, but she “was able to accept everything thrown at her with such grace and dignity. The woman smiled more than is humanly possible. She would light up a room.”
“She had the kind of life that would define most people in a negative way, and she rose above it in such an amazing way,” he said. “She was an inspiration to everyone. And the whole point of her work – everything she did – the only thing she wanted to convey in her artwork was she wanted to get people to put a smile on their face. She just wanted people to smile.”
Supporting Others in Need
Robin’s art made people happy, but it also made a tangible difference in the lives of those around her.
She opened her studio to people struggling with grief, and she shared with them the therapeutic relief that creating art had offered her over the years.
Robin also worked with the Alabama Oncology Foundation, creating and selling art to support the co-pay costs of cancer patients in need of assistance.
After overhearing that a fellow patient who was checking in couldn’t afford her co-payment, Ted said, “Robin decided she was going to do an art project and all the proceeds were going to help people with co-payments.”
Then she had an art show at her church in Montevallo that sold out, he said. And half of those proceeds also went to the assistance program she initiated, Help Oncology Patients Excel.
When the show at The Joy Gallery ends March 12, there will be a celebration of Robin’s life in the sanctuary of the Homewood Cumberland Presbyterian Church at 2 p.m. All are welcome.
“She was such a bubbly, happy soul,” Dameron said, “even when she was dying. She had a perfectly wonderful disposition.”
Dameron plays in a local band, and it will do six tunes to start the celebration service, he said. They play lots of songs from the 1930s, and he said, “We’re going to play ‘When My Sugar Walks Down the Street (All the Little Birdies Go Tweet-Tweet-Tweet),’ which is what would have happened if she walked down the street. … We’re going to do that to get people in a good mood and then people can come up and talk about her. … She wouldn’t want us to be sad.”