Robert Arneson Biography Essay

Robert Arneson Robert Arneson was born in 1930 in the town of Benicia, California. Growing up, Robert’s father would encourage him to draw constantly. Robert would get most of his inspiration at this age from all the comics his father would read him. Robert would imagine himself in various hero-like roles in his drawings and even at this young age he was able to put together well thought out stories with his drawings. He continued to gain experience with drawing and was on the role to becoming a professional cartoonist by doing small cartoons for the sports section of the local weekly newspaper. After graduating high school he attended the College of Marin in Kentfield where he continued to produce cartoons for the newspaper. Here at the College of Marin he was finally introduced to his first ceramics class. He had never done anything with ceramics beforehand and as a result he received a low D grade. Lucky for him his professors enjoyed his talent with making cartoons and sent portfolios of his work to the San Francisco Art Institute and the California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland.
He didn’t think he was good enough for the college so after just one semester he left but ended up returning in the spring of 1952 and graduated 2 years later with a Bachelor of Arts degree. He got a job at a high school where he would be expected to teach a wide variety of arts including ceramics which was his weakest area of training. He took a second class to develop more skill as a potter but that too seemed too tough for him and it ended up being the second time he was unsuccessful. It wasn’t until his second year, spring of 1956, as a teacher that he started enjoying ceramics and that June he entered summer school at San Jose College for ceramics. He didn’t believe they taught him much that summer so the next summer he returned to Arts and Crafts in