Wittenberg Magazine Online

The wrinkled face half-hidden in a cap bearing the words “Wittenberg Alumni” in booth number 52 of the Yellow Springs Street Fair this year was none other than Joe Robinson, the oldest graduate in the Wittenberg class of 1999.

At 73, Robinson, an artist, has created postcard-size prints of almost every shop and eatery in Yellow Springs.

His collection has been showcased in the Yellow Springs Street Fair for the past five years, and this year, his exhibition titled Portraits of a Village included prints of the Antioch Company, The Little Art Theater, the former Center Stage and the Wright Brothers’ bicycle shop in Dayton, among others.

Although he painted his first picture in 1988, Robinson quickly developed a passion for art following a difficult kidney transplant in 2000.

Working from photographs, Robinson uses watercolors and oils, and considers the unique feature of his paintings to be the absence of people. “There are no people in my art, only buildings that are usually open so people can go in.

I let people be the eyes, and go inside the building,” he said. Ranging in price from $2 for postcards to between $15-20 for prints, Robinson’s work was snatched up on the spot by some fair-goers while others just stopped by for a chat.

One such passerby asked him if his business was going well for the day, and Robinson replied with a smile, “I don’t do this for the business; I do it as a hobby.”

All funds raised from his paintings benefit the Kidney Fund, the Heart Fund and his daughter’s sixth-grade class.

Currently painting a scene inspired by a page in the book Discovering Britain and Ireland and writing poetry, Robinson thanks Wittenberg for a challenging, stimulating and terrific educational experience.

To him, Wittenberg is one of the finest institutions in the United States and his five-decade-long affair with it provided him with a “wonderful relationship” for life.

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