Painting like a man possessed
By: Emily Craighead
PLAINSBORO Where the tortured images of snakes and devils, the self-portraits of a man with piercing eyes, breasts and prominent genitalia come from, Robert Justin doesn’t know.
All he knows is that since a serious bout of pneumonia last year, painting has became a compulsion as he struggles with heart disease and emphysema that requires him to take oxygen most of the time.
"I can’t figure it out, but I feel better when I’m doing art," says Mr. Justin, a Hamilton resident who lived in Plainsboro for 20 years.
As a sculptor, Mr. Justin has created works that now belong to noted collectors, including "The Producers" cast-album producer Hugh Fordin; stage actor William Hunt; and J. Seward Johnson Jr., the sculptor, Grounds for Sculpture founder and pharmaceutical heir. Many of what Mr. Justin calls his "critters" his sculptures also make their home at the Plainsboro Public Library.
Through June 4, several of Mr. Justin’s recent paintings will be on display in the Plainsboro Public Library. The library will host a take-down reception and art chat at 3 p.m. June 4.
Mr. Justin paints like a man possessed, using his hands to blend the colors and create texture, working on several paintings at once, not stopping until all the paintings are complete. Although the artist walks slowly and often struggles to catch his breath, his paintings exude energy.
"It’s frenzied," he says. "Once I start a painting, I can’t go home. I do it from beginning to end, right then and there."
At first, shocked by his own paintings, he recoiled from the thought of showing his work to anyone, let alone in an art show.
"I would never buy a nude in my life, much less paint one," he says. "It was just not me."
Somehow, the heart procedures, the long hospital stays transformed him. His cardiologist told him that people who go through the suffering Mr. Justin did on the operating table experience such emotional changes.
Mr. Justin loves looking at the paintings, discovering and rediscovering his own creations.
"I see different things every time I look at them now," he says.
When he made sculptures out of found objects, it was all in fun. He saw himself not as an artist, but as someone who "likes to make stuff," he says.
"I never tried to create art," he adds. "I just see two things that look cool together and put them together. I was flabbergasted by the reception they were getting."
With dozens of paintings completed and in progress, he sought the advice of a few trusted friends in the art world. He asked them, were his paintings art? Were they garbage?
They liked his work, and Mr. Justin showed some of the paintings to Plainsboro Public Library director Jinny Baeckler, who invited him to show several pieces in the library.
"Once I saw them hung up, it diffused, I became calm," Mr. Justin said. "My art had been born. They became real when Jinny said, ‘I want to show them.’"
More paintings are still being born. Fourteen are in the works at Mr. Justin’s workshop, in addition to the 35 he has already finished.
For more information about the art show, contact the Plainsboro Public Library at (609) 275-2897.

