ABOUT MY PERSONAL CREATIVE CLIMB

The Fresh, Colorful World of Robert Diken

Retired Businessman Robert Diken Shows there is no Age Cap on Creativity, and that

Now is Always a Great Time to Start

Written by Annashae Davis, based on her interview of me as a Basecamp intern in 2025, for a college writing assignment at Boston University

He lives in a world of color. Nestled in a converted Victorian house, in a single room at the end of a narrow hallway, a sign hangs on an open door. Basecamp Studio & Gallery is written in large, blue lettering and loudly decorated with primary-colored geometric shapes. The walls of this room are freshly painted white and illuminated by a combination of warm, overhead track lighting he hung himself, and the natural evening glow of a large window enclave. In every nook and cranny, taking up the whole space and then some, are mini explosions of color and abstraction. Framed watercolors or inks, collages on canvas, and sculptures that twist and fold, nearly tumbling off their podiums, are packed together side-by-side and on display. Legs crossed and arms folded, Robert Diken leans back in his swivel chair like he’s about to give me a performance review. Tufts of white hair curl under his golfer’s cap, and his face, etched with smile lines and topped with oversized orange glasses, gives the impression that he knows something you don’t. A man in his 70s, you would never guess it from his infectious,get-er-done energy.

He gestures to a large, overflowing bin in the corner. “Sometimes if I don’t like a piece,or I think it’s too boring on its own, I’ll just use it in something else,” he says.Unlike most artists, Robert Diken only began experimenting with visual media after heretired in 2011 from a more conventional career in insurance. After decades working in Manhattan sky rises as a managing director at Marsh & McLennan and traveling around the world on business trips, he chose not to slow down. In retirement, he redirected his energy into a passion: creating art. With no prior formal artistic training, Robert sought the inspiration and expertise of a network of artists across the small town of Metuchen, New Jersey—later on using his artistic passion and business skills to enliven this community. Through this unconventional journey, Robert proves that creativity doesn’t end at a certain age. No matter how old a person is, it is not only possible, but beneficial to embrace the creativity inherent within yourself and in those around you, and as a result to live your life in color.

This insight didn’t just appear to Robert out of thin air. In his youth, he was drawn to landscape architecture, though ultimately laying that passion to rest for his career in insurance. Despite this sacrifice, his lifelong appreciation for nature and the broader surrounding world persisted. He visited museums around the world and encouraged his kids to pursue careers in the arts. But Robert had never actually considered creating art himself, explaining that he didn’t have the time or bandwidth—especially while having to support his family. “I didn’t think I had it in my system,” he says.

Robert would have to overcome serious physical setbacks in order to finally spark the reawakening of his imagination. The impetus of his desire to start creating came from anunexpected and unsettling turn in his life: “A weird thing dropped in my lap, which was I got a blood clot in my leg,” he says. “I got a deep vein thrombosis in my knee, which is quite a dangerous thing to get.” In his mid 50s at the time, Diken understood this moment as something of an age-related wake up call. He was only a few years out from retirement, and he knew he was going to need to find his next life project. Something to motivate him, and keep him, as he puts it, “alive.

Sitting in the hospital, with absolutely nothing to do, Diken asked his son to bring himsome colored pencils and a drawing pad. From there, he let his imagination run wild. “I didn’t know what the hell I was doing,” he says. “I was having a great time… I was learning.”Twenty years on, Diken can’t stop making art. His work—spanning nearly any artisticmedium you can think of—is still developing, ever evolving. Like Monet at Giverny, or Picassoin his last years, Diken’s creative life is far from over. It is only just beginning.

Along with owning his own studio and gallery at Basecamp, Diken recently held an exhibition of his own work, Experiments, and is often seen organizing community events in Metuchen centered around music and art. This is where the people skills he honed from his life in the business world have flourished. As he put it, “The work [of insurance] didn’t interest me so much as the people aspect.” For Robert, bringing people together to create is inseparable from the artistic process—it’s part of seeing the world in color.

A key player in Metuchen’s civic art scene, Diken has either participated in, run, or helped found organizations such as Friends of Metuchen Arts, the Metuchen Arts Council, and the June Bug Art Fair. For him, community building is its own artistic practice in that he is invigorated by the people he connects and the spaces he helps shape. It is as if he were channeling himself into the community, much like an artist channels themself through their work.

This stands in direct contrast to the approach of solitude and sequestration that manyother artists choose to practice when creating work. “I wasn’t a shrinking violet in the corner,” he says. “Otherwise, I’d be sitting at home thinking if I want to play canasta, or poker, or whatever.”So you see, keeping the community alive keeps Robert going.

In much the same way, Robert sees this lifestyle as applicable for pretty much anybody:“I think a lot of things are creative, not just art,” he explains. “[Creating] keeps me motivated,and alive, and connected in the community, and with myself, and meeting new friends.”

Though he describes himself as a “late blooming artist,” it is clear that Diken’s definitionof what it means to actually be an artist is much more nuanced. For him, artistry is not limited tojust making art, but it is a mentality that is shaped by a desire to learn and to reference, toappreciate creation, and to connect with other people—in particular with other artists, who oftenalso see the great complexity of the world.

“My definition of being artistic is not necessarily just that you can draw or make whattraditionally is considered art,” Diken explains. “It could be you’re a great cook, or you can sew,you're a poet—it could be anything. If you look at the way you run your life and you look atthings artistically then anything can be art.”

This inclusive perspective is emblematic of not just Robert as a person, but also of howhe views life and creative progression. Rob Wasilewski, a photographer based in South River,New Jersey, compares Robert’s unique approach to the climbing of a mountain with a “falsesummit,” that is, “you see a peak but you don’t realize until you get there that there is anotherone behind it.” For Robert, aging works in much the same way. With every life plateau, there is anew goal to reach, and more opportunities to create, build, and imagine.

Everyone has their own mountain to climb at their own pace, but what matters most, hebelieves, is recognizing that the opportunity to climb is always there if you choose to take it.As an example of constantly searching for new ways to create, a core theme present inmuch of Diken’s work has to do with the symbolism of repurposing old materials into freshworks. Whether it’s uninspired or disliked old pieces, flora and fauna, or even stuff from thetrash pile—Robert considers it fair game for creation. This idea of repurposing makes a clear statement on transformation and renewal.

Frank May, an artist and owner/curator of M Galleries in Washington, New Jersey hadthis to say about incorporating recycled materials into new works: “You are literally wasting timewhen you throw away these [pieces]. You put all this effort and work and it pains me, the loss ofthat. Things can be redeemed.”

Additionally, it also says something about the way Robert views nature as an everflowing source of inspiration. “Nature is right there,” he says. “There is something out there thatcan be observed—that is beautiful and fascinating. I want to bring it to life in some way.” It’s renewable, and comes in phases, much like life itself.

To Robert, this is beautiful and relatable.No matter what, he’s going to keep creating and trying new things—never letting insecurity or doubts really get to him. Because Robert views life as something to be grabbed by the horns, embracing each day as it comes and milking every moment for what it’s worth. It serves no purpose to think too hard about what is socially acceptable or common.

You become an artist when you decide to become an artist.“I’m never going to be what anybody else expects me to be. I’m never going to try to be anybody else, or mimic, or be like anybody else. I don’t put any pressure on myself to compete. I just do my thing and I stay in my channel. These other artists that do things better or different from me, well, then that's their thing. I don’t compare myself to anybody else.