Robert Treloar spent part of his childhood in Italy, where his parents encouraged a deep exposure to art and architecture throughout the Mediterranean. At the age of seven, he stood before Michelangelo’s statue of Moses. He was struck by the extraordinary illusion of muscles, tendons, and veins—living anatomy seemingly present beneath a thin layer of skin—yet carved entirely from stone. In that moment, he became aware not only of the artwork but of the artist behind it. The experience also awakened a recognition of his own natural inclination to draw.

Around that same time, Treloar began asking himself a question that would remain with him for the rest of his life: “I know what I am seeing, but what is truly there?” That curiosity—about perception, form, and the nature of representation—has continued to shape his life as an artist.

It is a question he continues to explore to this day.