Meet Dr. Robby Gordon | Artist, Curator and Founder of The Hollywood Sculpture Garden

We had the good fortune of connecting with Dr. Robby Gordon and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Dr. Robby, what led you to pursuing a creative path professionally?
I was born an artist. I didn’t decide to become one—it was simply the way I lived. From the time I was very young, I was always shaping the world around me. I would arrange things on the kitchen counter, change spaces so they felt more harmonious, more beautiful. I was always changing my environment. It was natural to me.
For me, art is connected to wellbeing. Beauty is not a luxury—it is essential. Every person has the right to experience beauty in their life. When I create—whether it is a painting, a sculpture, a piece of furniture, or the design of a home—I try to make a space where people can feel something deeper, where they can slow down and reconnect with themselves. My home and studio are like that too. They are places of healing. I want to evoke emotion in my viewers, whether they like my art or not. I want them to have their own interpretation of what they see.
Creating art is a language for me. It is how I think and how I express myself beyond words. In a way, my art is my mind and the viewers should interpret it according to their mind. The work begins with my thoughts, but once it exists it becomes open to interpretation. The viewer can bring their own memories, their own psychology, their own philosophy. They can even choose their own title. I want people to get lost in the color, in the movement, in whatever they see in the work.
Color is very important to me. Blue especially—it represents infinity. It is my favorite color because it feels endless, like a space where thought and emotion can expand. Through color and form I try to create something transformative, something that changes how a person feels even for a moment.
Art connects me with many fields—psychology, philosophy, science. Creating is both creative and pragmatic. It is emotional but also structural. I like that balance. I often say I am not only a human being, I am a human doing. I understand the world through making.
I live for art, and in many ways I am art. Through it I heal and express myself in a language of creation. If someone experiences my work and feels anything, then the work has done what it was meant to do.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
From the earliest time I can remember, I was drawn to the act of creating. I always felt a strong desire to shape the world around me and to bring beauty into everyday life. When I was about eight years old, I began working with wood—doing woodworking projects and carving. Even then, the satisfaction came from transforming raw material into something that felt alive and meaningful.
Around the same time, I developed another passion: plants. As a child I didn’t enjoy eating very much, and I used to ask my parents for a small plant as a reward for finishing my food. What began almost as a funny bargain quickly turned into a true fascination. Before long, every balcony in our home was filled with plants that I was caring for and arranging. Without realizing it, I was already creating environments.
That instinct has stayed with me throughout my life. Today I live surrounded by both art and nature. My home and studio are filled with the works I’ve created, along with an extensive collection of plants that form a living landscape around the art. Over time this vision expanded into something larger: I founded The Hollywood Sculpture Garden where nearly one hundred artists show their work alongside mine. The space functions as both a gallery and a garden, bringing together different artistic voices in a setting that is open, evolving, and alive.
Professionally, the path was not something that happened overnight or easily. Building a life around art requires persistence, patience, and belief in what you are doing—even when recognition comes slowly. My mother told me I had to pursue a career in business and not in art. I worked as a veterinarian and then in finance – I opened offices in Los Angeles and Orange County for financial planning, before I rediscovered art. Like many artists, I had to learn to trust my instincts and continue creating regardless of outside expectations. One of the most important lessons along the way has been that art is not just about producing objects; it is about building a world around your ideas and inviting others into it.
What sets my work apart, I believe, is that it grows out of this lifelong commitment to creating beauty not only on a canvas or in a sculpture, but in the spaces where life happens. My work is connected to environments, to people, and to the feeling that art can transform the atmosphere around us.
Ultimately, what I would like people to understand about my story is that creation has always been a way of life for everyone around me. Whether it is a painting, a piece of furniture, a sculpture, or an entire garden filled with art, the goal has always been the same: to create spaces and objects that carry beauty, vitality, and emotion, and that allow others to experience those feelings in their own way.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
For me, Los Angeles is one of the most exciting centers of art and culture in the world. Although people often say it is the “second” city for contemporary art, I believe it deserves to be first because of the incredible number of creative people, galleries, and museums here.
If a friend were visiting for a week, I would begin by taking them to some of the city’s great museums like The Broad, MOCA Grand Avenue, LACMA, and Craft Contemporary. From there we would explore the gallery scenes in places like Culver City, Hollywood, Downtown LA, Venice and other neighborhoods where artists are constantly creating new work.
Of course, Los Angeles is also an incredible food city. Over the week we would enjoy the diversity of the restaurant scene—great French and Italian cuisine, along with wonderful Middle Eastern and Eastern European food.
What makes Los Angeles special is that art, culture, and creativity are part of everyday life here. Moving between museums, galleries, conversations with artists, and great meals gives a real sense of why the city has become such an important cultural center.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
My work is shaped by the people and experiences that surround me. Every person I meet and every event I attend leaves some imprint on the way I think and create. Traveling to art fairs and exhibitions around the world has been especially important for me—being in the presence of other artists, particularly those working in a post-modern style similar to mine, continually expands my perspective. Seeing how others interpret form, space, color, and meaning keeps my mind active and reminds me that art is an ongoing conversation rather than something created in isolation.
Inspiration also comes from everyday life. Any event, encounter, or moment of observation can become the beginning of a new idea. Sometimes it is something very small—a reaction, a movement, a feeling—that later finds its way into a painting, a sculpture, or a design.
In recent years, though, my greatest source of inspiration has been my grandchildren—Nico, Julian, and Sasha. They bring a kind of pure happiness and curiosity that is incredibly powerful. The way they react to the world, their spontaneity and imagination, often moves directly into my work. I find myself constantly thinking about how to share creativity with them—showing them simple artistic gestures, letting them experiment with materials, and then transforming the emotions that come from those moments into both their and my own creations. In many ways, their joy has become a quiet but central force behind the work I make today.

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