Royce Soble: 40 Years of Atlanta, Through a Third Eye
Some artists make work you admire. Royce Soble makes work you live with.
I’ve been collecting Royce’s pieces since 2014, and what struck me then is what still strikes me now — there’s a soul in everything they make that turns a house into a home. So when I had the chance to sit down with them in their studio for this week’s Local Business Spotlight, it felt less like an interview and more like a long-overdue conversation between old friends. (We actually overlapped at Georgia State’s Art and Music Building back in the late ’90s — small world, smaller art scene.)
A Camera at Ten, a Career at Forty
Royce’s first love is photography. They picked up a camera at age 10 and never really put it down. “I always would bring my camera with me wherever I went,” they told me, “and so my love of documenting life began 40 years ago.”
That instinct — to show up and pay attention — became the through-line of everything that followed.
While earning their BFA in photography at Georgia State, Royce took every painting and drawing class the program allowed. What started as curriculum expansion became a second medium, then a third, then a way of seeing entirely. “Having the duality of being a photographer, which is realistic and a 60th of a second, to an abstract painter really allows me to work in two very different ways,” Royce explained. “But I also like to blend them together — collage, mixed media works with photography and painting. That brings a third eye into the style of the work that I do.”
That third eye is exactly what makes a Royce Soble piece unmistakable.
An Archive of a City
Beyond the studio work, Royce has spent decades documenting Atlanta itself. Their archive of Atlanta nightlife, LGBTQ community, and 35 years of activism now lives at Emory University’s Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library — a permanent record of a city most institutions weren’t paying attention to.
That’s not a footnote. That’s a body of work that historians will be referencing a century from now. And it sits alongside a daily studio practice that hasn’t slowed down for a moment.
The Journals
One of the most beautiful things Royce showed me was their journal practice. Over 100 books, started during the COVID era and still growing. Each one is a free flow of color and texture — drawings of people, pressed and layered. Color palette experiments. Studies before committing to a larger piece.
“I work prolifically. I like to work a lot. I work quickly,” Royce said. “I work on many different things at different times, and this is just a way for me to be able to get my emotions and my energy out on paper.”
Each journal is its own collection — sometimes 60 different paintings bound into a single object. And yes, the works are for sale.
How to Bring Royce’s Work Home
This is exactly why I do these spotlights. The people who make Atlanta a place worth living in deserve to be seen — and Royce is at the top of that list.
If you want to experience their work in person, sit for a portrait session, or bring something beautiful home, their info is below:
🎨 Collect their work: www.roycesoble.com
🌐 More from Royce: @roycetakespics @roycesobolovitz
See you next time, Around Atlanta. 🤍