Visionary art

Cryptic series Organic Formation. I Pad drawing 2015

Study nature, love nature, stay close to nature. It will never fail you.

Frank Lloyd Wright

"Things hidden in my head" Copyright 2015 © Ronald D. Isom, Sr.

Visionary art

Pity the Planet

“Pity the planet, all joy gone
from this sweet volcanic cone;
peace to our children when they fall
in small war on the heel of small
war--until the end of time
to police the earth, a ghost
orbiting forever lost
in our monotonous sublime” 
― Robert Lowell, Near the Ocean: Poems

"Things hidden in my head" Copyright 2015 © Ronald D. Isom, Sr.

Visionary art.

Cryptic series Neutrinos I Pad drawing 2014

"Things hidden in my head" Copyright 2013 © Ronald D. Isom, Sr.

Visionary art

Cryptic series. Face of Chaos

I Pad drawing. 2014

"Things hidden in my head" Copyright 2013 © Ronald D. Isom, Sr.

Visionary art

The discovery of individuality

"Things hidden in my head" Copyright 2013 © Ronald D. Isom, Sr.

Visionary art

Cryptic series. Natures Hand. 2014. IPad drawing.

"Things hidden in my head" Copyright 2013 © Ronald D. Isom, Sr.

Isom's theory of creative absorption

I am a basically a collage of my ancestor’s DNA, mixed with hundreds of thousands of words, images and ideas that my brain has absorbed and then releases them in the process of creating art.

"Things hidden in my head" Copyright 2013 © Ronald D. Isom, Sr.

Visionary art

Cryptic series five. Manipulation. I Pad drawing 12/2014

"Things hidden in my head" Copyright 2013 © Ronald D. Isom, Sr.

Visionary art.

Cryptic series four. Message from a colorful bird. I Pad drawing 11/2014

"Things hidden in my head" Copyright 2013 © Ronald D. Isom, Sr.

Visionary art

Cryptic series three. Carnival. I Pad drawing 2014

"Things hidden in my head" Copyright 2013 © Ronald D. Isom, Sr.

Visionary art.

Cryptic Series two. The Tree of Life. 11/2014 I Pad Drawing

"Things hidden in my head" Copyright 2014 © Ronald D. Isom, Sr.

Visionary art

Cryptic series one. The voyage. I Pad drawing

"Things hidden in my head" Copyright 2014 © Ronald D. Isom, Sr.

Baroque Series No. 1 and No. 2. I pad drawings. Procreate app.

"Things hidden in my head" Copyright 2014 © Ronald D. Isom, Sr.

Work featured in Grafica Newletter

"Things hidden in my head" Copyright 2014 © Ronald D. Isom, Sr.

"Things hidden in my head" Copyright 2014 © Ronald D. Isom, Sr.

Monoprint series

The monoprint series is now available for purchase. The prints are 15"X21" including the white space around the print. Each gelée print will be hand signed and numbered.  Only 25 prints in this series. The price will be 44.00 for each print. Please email me if you want to buy a print.

No. 1 Hidden landscapes of the imagination.

No. 2 Voyage into inner space.

No. 3  Elements in flux. 

No.4 Unconscious source.









"Things hidden in my head" Copyright 2014 © Ronald D. Isom, Sr.

Homage to Dada series.

This series of ten prints is a homage to the Dadaists.  The Dadaists used scissors and glue rather than paint brushes and paints to express their views of modern life through images presented by the media. A variation on the collage technique, photomontage utilized actual or reproductions of real photographs printed in the popular press.  In Cologne, Max Ernst used images from World War I to illustrate messages of the destruction of war.  I find my image using Goggle much like the early Dadaist used media images.  I print the black and white images on 11”X17” presentation paper and use a Sharpie to enhance the image with personal symbolism.  The image guides my imagination and provides a starting point for the spontaneous drawing.

The Giclée prints are 9”X12”, printed on heavy archival paper.  Only fifty of each signed and numbered print will be available.  Individual prints are 25.00 each and a completed set of ten is 200.00. Shipping costs will be added to the price. Please email your interest.

Rapture of living

Life of a brain

Head Heart Help Hope Hustle Hand

Television apparatus

Time

Divination of ideas

One direction

Upside down can sometimes be right side up

A Vessel with Many Chambers

Nature vs Nurture

"Things hidden in my head" Copyright 2014 © Ronald D. Isom, Sr.

"Things hidden in my head" Copyright 20134 © Ronald D. Isom, Sr.

The garden.

Garden of serenity. Sharpie pen drawing. 8"X10" 2014

"What I dream of is an art of balance, of purity and serenity devoid of troubling or depressing subject matter - a soothing, calming influence on the mind, rather like a good armchair which provides relaxation from physical fatigue."
Henri Matisse

"Things hidden in my head" Copyright 2014 © Ronald D. Isom, Sr.

Humming of the strings.

Geometry and mathematical rations

harmonics and proportionality

Ink drawing 14"X17"

"There is geometry in the humming of the strings, 
there is music in the spacing of the spheres." Pythagoras

"Things hidden in my head" Copyright 2013 © Ronald D. Isom, Sr.

Viral exploration.

Viral exploration. Ink drawing 14"X17".

An artistic mind can find beauty anywhere - but what about the world's most deadly viruses and bacteria? They can spark interesting cognitive dissonance in viewers as they are both attractive and repulsive.

"Things hidden in my head" Copyright 2014 © Ronald D. Isom, Sr.

Mind oscillations.

“The pendulum of the mind oscillates between sense and nonsense, not between right and wrong.” 
― C.G. Jung



"Things hidden in my head" Copyright 2014 © Ronald D. Isom, Sr.

Metropolis

"Things hidden in my head" Copyright 2014© Ronald D. Isom, Sr.

Dog catalog 11"X17" Sharpie pen drawing.

"Things hidden in my head" Copyright 2014 © Ronald D. Isom, Sr.

A friend reminded me to today of the lack of original thought and the excessive use of memes on Facebook. I have preached the gospel of creativity for many years but I have fallen prey to meaningless meme postings. This posting could be a meme. It is not original thought; countless articles and research papers are available on the internet. At least my art is original. Hold on a minute! My work contains elements and ideas from other artists. There are entire internet sites dedicated to Sharpie art. I am certainly not the first person to doodle. I use quotes from books to explain my art. It is an age old story we fool ourselves into thinking we came up with an "original" idea. I guess I am just trapped in my minds meme.

"Things hidden in my head" Copyright 2014© Ronald D. Isom, Sr.

“Many myths and religions have some kind of threat of retribution from their god or gods, and their doctrines warn of the dangers of doing various forbidden things. Why? Because memes involving danger are the ones we pay attention to! As oral traditions developed, our brains were set up to amplify the dangers and give them greater significance than the rest.” 
― Richard Brodie, Virus of the Mind: The New Science of the Meme

Hobby Lobby culture...

Long before Hobby Lobby became involve in moral issues many "artsy-fartsy" stores were forcing their cultural views on the public. They always purported to have the answer of how to make art and provided their customers with "easy to follow instructions". Back when I started teaching in 1961, the "craft store" concept was limited to a few hobby stores that specialize in car, plane and train kits. Art teachers generally ordered their supplies from industrial sources and a few art supply houses. Most purchases were limited to bulk paint, paper, clay etc. Craftsmen worked materials by hand and had an intimate knowledge of manipulation of materials. "Crafty creep" soon set in and more and more kits and stencils found their way into the world of fine art. Today, big box art stores are filled with pre-made items that stifle creativity and they have become the arbiters of taste. Perhaps, it is a stretch to compare abortion issues to crafty items but I think the " I have all the answers" philosophy can be a slippery slope. Personal freedom to choose and control our moral beliefs and our artistic expression is a fundamental right.

"Things hidden in my head" Copyright 2014 © Ronald D. Isom, Sr.

"Things hidden in my head" Copyright 2014 © Ronald D. Isom, Sr.

"Things hidden in my head" Copyright 2014 © Ronald D. Isom, Sr.

"Things hidden in my head" Copyright 2014 © Ronald D. Isom, Sr.

"Things hidden in my head" Copyright 2014

© Ronald D. Isom, Sr.

Existential manipulation series 1995. 

House paint, acrylic, collage, enamel on chipboard 4'X4'.

"Things hidden in my head" Copyright 2014 © Ronald D. Isom, Sr.

Natural philosophy...

Natural Philosophy

“We should remember that there was once a discipline called natural philosophy. Unfortunately, this discipline seems not to exist today. It has been renamed science, but science of today is in danger of losing much of the natural philosophy aspect.”  Hannes Alfven

"Things hidden in my head" Copyright 2014 © Ronald D. Isom, Sr.

Axis Mundi...

Axis mundi symbolism may be seen in much of the romance surrounding space travel. A rocket on the pad takes on all the symbolism of a tower and the astronaut enacts a mythic story. Each embarks on a perilous journey into the heavens and, if successful, returns with a boon for dissemination.

"Things hidden in my head" Copyright 2013 © Ronald D. Isom, Sr.

My four year old could do this...

Why Do Abstract Artists Paint or draw Abstractly?

The paradoxical question…Can an abstract artist actually create a pictorial painting?

We’ve all heard the criticisms: “People paint abstracts because they can’t draw,” and “My four year old could have done that.”  I have fielded that questions many times over the last sixty years, my explanation always seems to generate more questions.  I often resorted to cryptic answers in order to end the circular argument.  My favorite response is “art is and I am”. Art is defined as: “The expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form such as painting, drawing  or sculpture.”  Art is not limited to a particular style or subject matter..Most individuals  cannot deal with such a broad statement and they do not see art as a process but as a product. In a process oriented activity we use materials and our own thinking and problem solving skills to create something that is uniquely ours . What we are learning while doing is more important than what it looks like at the end.

Like the history of art, the process of art is linear. As our knowledge and technology grow our perception of the world changes.  Artists explore new ways of seeing and explaining the ever changing environment.  In my own work, I explore the world using symbols.It is study of the heart,soul and mind, creating esoteric connections to the universe. Without symbols our lives would be as spiritually impoverished as sleep without dreams. Our waking life is full of symbolism operating on an unconscious level. A symbol is a sign which opens up or makes transparent insights and truths that were previously hidden.

We are so captivated by and entangled in our subjective consciousness that we have forgotten the age-old fact that God speaks chiefly through dreams and visions.

• The Symbolic Life (1953); also in Man and His Symbols (1964)

"Things hidden in my head" Copyright 2013 © Ronald D. Isom, Sr.

Critical thinking...

A Brief History of the Idea of Critical Thinking

"The intellectual roots of critical thinking are as ancient as its etymology, traceable, ultimately, to the teaching practice and vision of Socrates 2,500 years ago who discovered by a method of probing questioning that people could not rationally justify their confident claims to knowledge. Confused meanings, inadequate evidence, or self-contradictory beliefs often lurked beneath smooth but largely empty rhetoric. Socrates established the fact that one cannot depend upon those in "authority" to have sound knowledge and insight. He demonstrated that persons may have power and high position and yet be deeply confused and irrational. He established the importance of asking deep questions that probe profoundly into thinking before we accept ideas as worthy of belief." http://www.criticalthinking.org/pages/a-brief-history-of-the-idea-of-critical-thinking/408

"Things hidden in my head" Copyright 2013 © Ronald D. Isom, Sr.

A non-objective view...

Biomorphic landscape

a non-objective view

Landscape art can be understood as a way of composing and organizing visual space that involves the perception of relationships between images of natural form and us as viewers. Landscape art presents us with a set of concerns that involve the domain of culture as opposed to nature.  We naturalize sensations about such places—wind on our cheeks, a glimpse of sky, the smell of grass and herbs, the particular architecture of a city street—in order to keep the experience fresh. 

"Things hidden in my head" Copyright 2013 © Ronald D. Isom, Sr.

Shapeshifting...

Therianthrope

Therianthropy refers to the metamorphosis of humans into animals. Therianthropes are said to change forms via shapeshifting. Therianthropes have long existed in mythology, appearing in ancient cave drawings  such as the Sorcerer at Les Trois Frères. 

"Things hidden in my head" Copyright 2014 © Ronald D. Isom, Sr.