Art in the Lucille Caudill Little Fine Arts Library: Ron Isaacs

Artist Ron Isaacs creates elegant works of art that, at first glance, appears to be assemblages of vintage garments, natural forms, and objects from daily life. A mast of trompe l’oeil ("fool the eye"), Isaacs constructs his compositions from numerous pieces of Finnish birch wood, then he deftly paints them in acrylic to mimic a variety of materials. Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, Isaacs obtained his B.A. in art from Berea College in 1963 and his M.F.A in painting from Indiana University in 1965.

Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan, WI

"I have to make things; I can’t help it.  I could use real objects to make assemblages, installations, or collages, but that doesn’t seem enough.  My basic technique of building elaborate relief constructions of Finnish birch plywood and painting them in trompe l’oeil fashion has its own deep satisfactions of process and problem-solving, but it also serves as a means of understanding the objects and creating the images I want to deal with."

Snyderman-Works Galleries, Philadelphia, PA

Sea Grape (1995). Acrylic on birch plywood construction. 15 ¼ x 12 x 2 in. Photo by Ashlee Chilton.