Robert Wilson Obituary
Robert George Wilson passed away on August 3rd, 2020 at the Central Washington Hospital. He died from complications from open heart surgery due to advanced heart disease.
Robert Wilson was best known as an abstract painter and artist. His work has been shown at the prestigious Francine Seders Gallery in Seattle as well as in many galleries in New York, Connecticut, Chicago and Atlanta. In and around his beloved adopted hometown of Wenatchee he showed at the Robert Graves Gallery, Gallery One and Pybus Market as well as at Two Rivers and Collapse Galleries. His highly-praised, arresting work is in collections all over the United States. It can be viewed at RRWilsonArt.com.
“I treat my paintings as objects,” Wilson says. “As in minimalist works, energy comes from the tension between shapes, raw lines and fierce color. It would please me to eliminate form entirely so that only energy remains. Then I would use that energy to create new forms. Art can be about exploring the future.”
He is a published author of both science fiction books (Tentacles of Dawn, Major Books) and works on business management (Top Shops!, Hanser Gardner).
Robert Wilson was an active follower of the Baha’i Faith and worked in service to that community since he joined the religion in 1963. He served on countless assemblies, councils and committees over his 57 years as a Baha’i, even ‘pioneering’ to work with the communities around Bluefields, Nicaragua for two and a half years in the late sixties and early seventies. He was attracted to and inspired by the Baha’i universal vision of peace and unity as well as the healing power of the words of its founder, Baha’u’llah.
But most of all, Robert was known and loved for his gentle heart, his incredible kindness and his joyful, loving sense of humor.
He is survived by his son, the actor Rainn Wilson (The Office), his grandson Walter Wilson (age 15) and his wife of 19 years, Carla Wilson who works at Eagle Group in East Wenatchee and is the loving mother to Javid Freeman and Ashleigh Mellergaard and grandmother to Jake, Asher and Aidan.
Their marriage was a loving inspiration to all that knew them.
“Our body is like the cage, and the spirit is like the bird… if the cage becomes broken, the bird will continue and exist. Its feelings will be even more powerful, its perceptions greater, and its happiness increased.” –ʻAbdu'l-Bahá