{"id":4364,"date":"2023-02-20T14:41:36","date_gmt":"2023-02-20T22:41:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chiccompass.com\/?p=4364"},"modified":"2026-08-30T21:23:26","modified_gmt":"2026-08-31T04:23:26","slug":"robert-shields","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chiccompass.com\/wordpress\/robert-shields\/","title":{"rendered":"Robert Shields - Artistry in (Constant) Motion"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Chic<\/span><\/div>
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This article was printed in<\/em>
\nChic Compass Magazine - Issue 13<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>

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\"Robert<\/span><\/div><\/div>

Robert Shields<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>

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Robert Shields: Artistry in (Constant) Motion<\/h1>\n

By Stacey Gualandi<\/p>\n<\/div>

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There is an old adage that says, \u201cYou should never meet your heroes\u201d because if you meet them in real life, they will never live up to your expectations.<\/p>\n

As a kid who grew up in the era of variety shows and watched endless hours of television, Shields and Yarnell was the biggest act in entertainment. They\u2019ve been Hollywood heroes of mine ever since.<\/p>\n

After interviewing Robert Shields recently about his decades-long career, that old adage couldn\u2019t be more wrong.<\/p>\n

Shields is now a prolific painter, sculptor, and jeweler, whose creativity with metal, gicl\u00e9e\u2019s, and mixed media knows no bounds.<\/p>\n

But long before the 71-year-old successfully set up shop outside Sedona, Arizona\u2014an art studio-turned-funhouse filled with his fantastical handmade paintings, sculptures, metal pieces, and jewelry\u2014Shields mesmerized millions (and me!) as a world-renowned mime.<\/p>\n<\/div>

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\u201c[Mimes] are usually actors, gymnasts, dancers, writers, and the most important thing, comedians,\u201d says Shields. \u201cI\u2019ve never stopped being that. I do it all the time. I have over 400 masks in my house and am constantly performing.\u201d<\/p>\n

He famously became known for \u201cThe Robot\u201d after legendary French mime Marcel Marceau first discovered Shields in his teens (and later Michael Jackson, who took his first moon-walking cues from Shields!)<\/p>\n

\u201cI started doing [the Robot] in 1967 when I worked at the Hollywood Wax Museum,\u201d says Shields. \u201cI could go for an hour without blinking. I would train my eyes. If they see you blink, they\u2019d know you\u2019re not real, so that\u2019s how that started.\u201d<\/p>\n

He quickly transformed from a beloved San Francisco street performer who stopped traffic (and got arrested multiple times!) to one-half of the dynamic dance and mime duo Shields and Yarnell.<\/p>\n

Together, they dominated the 1970s. They starred in their own television variety show; toured with celebrities like Bob Hope; won an Emmy and the \u201cLas Vegas Entertainers of the Year\u201d award two years in a row; and appeared on over 400 national television shows with everyone from Dean Martin to Carol Burnett.
\nThe \u201csilent\u201d screen star never said a word, but his work always spoke for itself.<\/p>\n

Since then, he\u2019s continued expressing himself through his one-of-a-kind creations; yet the anything-but-robotic artist now has plenty to say.<\/p>\n

Shields recently took a break at his Clarkdale, Arizona, studio to talk show pieces, show business, and everything in between.<\/p>\n<\/div>

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CHIC COMPASS: You haven\u2019t slowed down a bit!<\/strong><\/p>\n

ROBERT SHIELDS: I have a tremendous amount of energy. I mean, it\u2019s like I\u2019m very blessed with energy, and I\u2019m still a 32 waist! I do yoga every day, and I eat right. Well, today, I had these Christmas cookies I needed. HA!<\/p>\n

CHIC COMPASS: How long have you been making art?<\/strong><\/p>\n

ROBERT SHIELDS: I was a ceramicist in high school, and I was a teacher\u2019s assistant. My love always was art first. I had my first showing at 15 in a major gallery. I was doing purple nudes with eyes coming out of them and weird [stuff] that was very advanced, then I started doing castles in 1969 when I graduated. Now I\u2019m doing all kinds of different things. I create every day, and I\u2019m very lucky that I am fortunate enough to make an incredible living selling my art. It\u2019s magic!<\/p>\n<\/div>

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CHIC COMPASS: What inspires you?<\/strong><\/p>\n

ROBERT SHIELDS: It\u2019s symbolism. I\u2019m looking at a painting I did that has a guy meditating. There\u2019s a raven, and there\u2019s a ladder going up, and there\u2019s a peacock on the ladder, and there\u2019s a window, and there\u2019s a quail looking out the window. There\u2019s a big eye that turns into a sun, and there\u2019s an owl, and there\u2019s a moon hanging by a string.<\/p>\n

And there\u2019s a cat that comes out of a jack in the box, and there\u2019s a big cup of coffee, and then there\u2019s a beautiful heart with all these rays coming out of it. And there are three hummingbirds with a heart around them, and there\u2019s a guitar and an amplifier with music playing.<\/p>\n

I love symbols and windows and ladders and animals and giraffes poking and at looking under things\u2026goddesses and crosses and Stars of David and candles. Oh, dragons and teacups piled on top of each other with a guy holding an umbrella.<\/p>\n<\/div>

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CHIC COMPASS: Do you have a favorite piece right now?<\/strong><\/p>\n

ROBERT SHIELDS: The suns are a new thing I\u2019m doing. If you see them in person, they\u2019re psychedelic man. They\u2019re detailed, layered, and very dimensional.<\/p>\n

CHIC COMPASS: Wow! Is there no end to your creativity?<\/strong><\/p>\n

ROBERT SHIELDS: No, there\u2019s no containing it. I mean, if you walked into my house, it\u2019s like I live in a magical wonderland. I have my own gallery, and I\u2019m in about eight galleries now. I also have an online presence\u2014www.robertshields.com<\/a>\u2014which offers free shipping. During Christmas, I shipped out 150 packages! Every one is handmade by me because I don\u2019t have any employees. I used to have all that, and a big giant display at the Mirage [in Las Vegas], and I sold to all these hotels; I had my own show on QVC; I was a jewelry designer for years; I had five of my own galleries, my own restaurant and I wholesaled at 2,000 stores all over the world.\u2026but then I decided to pull back and just do art shows, make stuff myself and just be simple. That became wildly successful for me.<\/p>\n<\/div>

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CHIC COMPASS: Is there something that you haven\u2019t accomplished yet?<\/strong><\/p>\n

ROBERT SHIELDS: No, I have no plans to do anything. I just live a kind of moment-by-moment existence, and I love doing art. I get orders every day from people who come over, and all these stores call me who love my artwork. My whole life was about achievement. It was this tour and that tour and going to Taiwan for 19 weeks. I played Vegas three or four times in all those hotels and had a contract with Caesars and Atlantic City.<\/p>\n

CHIC COMPASS: How influential were you?<\/strong><\/p>\n

ROBERT SHIELDS: Before Cirque du Soleil, there was [Shields and Yarnell]. We influenced a lot of people, and that was really great. Show business is such a weird mistress. It\u2019s incredible how it\u2019s changed now\u2026there are some people who are just absolutely brilliant, but there\u2019s a lot of mediocrity.<\/p>\n

CHIC COMPASS: Why did you leave \u201cHollywood\u201d?<\/strong><\/p>\n

ROBERT SHIELDS: I was young and famous in Los Angeles and was invited to all the parties and hanging out with Jack Nicholson and all that\u2026 but I\u2019m very sensitive. I started to really learn how to meditate. I was studying Zen and going to Japan a lot, and performing\/writing pieces that were very introspective. I had to leave LA.<\/p>\n

I went to Sedona back in \u201986, and I never left. I\u2019ve been [in Clarkdale] since 2013. I hang out with people, and they don\u2019t care who I am or who I was, and I don\u2019t care who they are. That show-business attitude is not around anywhere, and I just love living in a little hick town.<\/p>\n<\/div>

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CHIC COMPASS: Is it better to have had the fame than never to have had it at all?<\/strong><\/p>\n

ROBERT SHIELDS: Once you\u2019ve had it, you look at it and go, \u201cWow!\u201d People don\u2019t realize what an illusion it is. Fame is a bitch. It took me a long time to come off that ego trip. I was glad to have that for a while and to see the illusion of it because it\u2019s really dangerous. It\u2019s a very dangerous thing to be famous because it\u2019s a gigantic responsibility.<\/p>\n

CHIC COMPASS: What will be your legacy?<\/strong><\/p>\n

ROBERT SHIELDS: Happiness. I make people happy. My art makes people happy. I hear that a lot, and it makes me happy to make people happy. Coming up with \u201cThe Robot\u201d was a groundbreaking thing for me. I got a scholarship with Marcel Marceau, and the whole robotic thing spawned off all these break dancers\u2026<\/p>\n

CHIC COMPASS: What has your career taught you?<\/strong><\/p>\n

ROBERT SHIELDS: I think the biggest thing is realizing I\u2019m no different from anyone else. Everybody is an artist, and everybody has the same talent. The key is to work hard\u2026and life is a long lesson in humility. As you get older, it\u2019s important to realize that all that stuff is dust in the wind. The main thing is just being nice to people and being nice to yourself and not thinking that you\u2019re anything but right here in the moment. That\u2019s all that matters.<\/p>\n

CHIC COMPASS: Thank you, Robert! You definitely exceeded my expectations!<\/strong><\/p>\n

To see Robert\u2019s artwork, go to www.robertshields.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

To see the trailer for his documentary \u201cMy Life as a Robot,\u201d visit mylifeasarobot.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>

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As a kid who grew up in the era of variety shows and watched endless hours of television, Shields and Yarnell was the biggest act in entertainment. They\u2019ve been Hollywood heroes of mine ever since. Shields is now a prolific painter, sculptor, and jeweler, whose creativity with metal, gicl\u00e9e\u2019s, and mixed media knows no bounds. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4365,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4522,3859],"tags":[2831,3871,2832,3869,3408,3870],"class_list":["post-4364","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts-and-culture","category-issue-13","tag-artist","tag-mime","tag-painting","tag-robert-shields","tag-sculpture","tag-shields-and-yarnell"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chiccompass.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4364","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chiccompass.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chiccompass.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chiccompass.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chiccompass.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4364"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/chiccompass.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4364\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10779,"href":"https:\/\/chiccompass.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4364\/revisions\/10779"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chiccompass.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chiccompass.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chiccompass.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chiccompass.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}