ISOM SYMBOLIC ART

Saturday, March 12, 2022

Thoughts and wonder.

Ink drawing/ enhanced digital image from Graphic Fairy web site.

Friday, March 11, 2022

Art from the Grafica archives.

Thursday, March 10, 2022

GET TO KNOW: RON ISOM SR.March 17, 2018By: Julia M. Johnson

The best teachers are the ones who never stop learning. That is artist Ron Isom’s mantra—to keep growing and developing in retirement—so he hasn’t slowed down a bit when it comes to drawing, painting and exhibiting his work. The former Belleville East High School art teacher, now a Webster Groves resident, uses everything from Sharpies to found objects to bring his ideas to life—and he still loves inspiring others by giving talks and illustrating books. His latest exhibit at Grafica Fine Arts is an expression of how the simplest materials can convey complex messages. “I’d say I’m an educator first and artist second,” says Isom, 78. “Other people like to retire with golf outings and travel; I’ve just never stopped making art.”

my background … I’ve always been interested in building things and figuring out how they work. My dad was an electrician and my grandfather worked on the railroad, so it’s natural that I enjoy manipulating materials. I earned a bachelor’s degree in art education and a master’s of science in art, and chaired the music, art and foreign language department at Belleville East for most of my 33-year career there.

my philosophy as a teacher … Research shows that reading, writing and arithmetic aren’t enough to make well-rounded people. They need to be involved in art, music and drama as well. Any Saturday afternoon painter can print business cards that say ‘artist,’ but becoming an art educator is a much more complex process. I always tried to teach my students to look at an object and see something totally different.

my philosophy as an artist … Art is about problem solving for me. When I find an object or a new material, I want to figure out how far I can push and manipulate it. It’s an ongoing challenge.

where i get my materials … I like to go to garage sales, auctions, thrift shops and junk stores. I don’t use the word ‘repurposed;’ that’s a little too artsy-craftsy for me! If I see a box of scrap leather or other interesting items for sale, I’ll pick them up. It’s kind of a lifestyle for me, always looking for odd materials. My classroom was always full of stuff like that. I love TV shows like American Pickers—the guys see old objects as opportunities, just like I do. I’m fascinated by what other people throw away. I pride myself on being able to go to a sale on the very last day and still find something I want.

how i use technology … Computers are very much a part of my process. That came about because school art departments in the ‘90s fell victim to cutbacks, and a lot of programs shut down. I rewrote our art program and called it ‘graphic design’ so it could get vocational funding, and I was able to buy computers with that money. It really saved the art department. Now, I often use an iPad and stylus, and I photograph and scan found objects and use the images to create artwork. I have programs that can digitally manipulate and print them, including one that can remember your keystrokes and make a video of how you created a piece.

what’s different about my work … I often create using a collection of symbols I call my ‘codex.’ It’s like my own language, and it’s very abstract and stream-of-consciousness. I start drawing with a Sharpie in the middle of a surface, and I just keep filling it up with letters, numbers, symbols and more. Sometimes there is form or context, and sometimes not. My latest exhibit includes images on paper, chairs and even a coat I bought at Goodwill.

my creative process … I often draw while I’m sitting and watching TV. I like the ambient noise, and I just sit there and keep going as long as I want. A lot of my work is expressing what I have heard and seen. I take images and symbols and mix them up, and they come out as a bunch of ideas in one piece.

how my family gets involved … My wife, Anita, and I have done art together for a long time. She was the one who first bought chairs and encouraged me to paint them. She definitely enabled me; she never asked questions about art supplies I bought or things I built in the backyard. And my kids all have artwork of mine—their houses are almost like shrines to it. I think there’s more to it than just liking my work; they really are fascinated by it.

my creative environment … My wife and I have an apartment that works well because it’s a nice vintage space with high ceilings, and one of the bedrooms is my studio. The apartment is full of things I plan to use—vases, pictures, books, boxes of costume jewelry. I used to own a bookstore in Belleville with an art studio connected to it, so I love old books and treasures, and I pick them up wherever I go. My kids think I need an intervention.

Photo: Bill Barrett https://townandstyle.com/get-to-know-ron-isom-sr/

Wednesday, March 9, 2022

Clown World.

The current state of global society: women are men, men are women, the schools teach propaganda instead of classes, left is right and right is left so basically, the reverse-world in steroids. You can see this effect in any collectivist movement like Fat acceptance, these people literally tell people that morbid obesity is healthy for example.

Although there are the typical trolls that say that anything that isn´t right of Ronald Reagan is a leftist abnormal, this theory is becoming more and more true as the time passes, like, a big part of the youth believes that Communism is good and it will solve all of our problems and that dissolving the Police will end racism. If people don´t understand that they are being used as useful idiots for a leftist agenda by the big coorporations, civilization as we know it wil cease to exist.

What is that smell.

Brief episodes of phantom smells or phantosmia — smelling something that's not there — can be triggered by temporal lobe seizures, epilepsy, or head trauma. Phantosmia is also associated with Alzheimer's and occasionally with the onset of a migraine.

The landscape is a powerful.

Landscape subject matter which can embody a wide spectrum of emotions, however it is also used a purely decorative genre where artists can display their skills. Landscape art can also be all about capturing a beautiful moment and documenting natural events that others may never get to see.

We can all access the external environment, which is one of the reasons why it is one of the most accessible and universal forms of art. Examples of landscape art can be found from Britain, to Paris to China and the fact that it is still exceptionally popular today; for both artists and viewers just shows that landscape as a subject matter will always be relevant.

Monday, March 7, 2022

Hidden knowledge.

The dragon is a symbol of evil, in both the chivalric and Christian traditions. In the Orient, it symbolizes supernatural power, wisdom, strength, and hidden knowledge. In most traditions, it is the embodiment of chaos and untamed nature.

Don't count your chickens.

"People who count their chickens before they are hatched act very wisely because chickens run about so absurdly that it is impossible to count them accurately."

- Oscar Wilde.

Head with steel worm.

The (Gun) Worm that Turns

Soldiers once used “gun worms,” metal claws mounted to the end of wooden ramrods, to clear bullets and wadding from the barrels of muskets that had failed to fire. The curled tip inspired the winding shape of a corkscrew, once known as a steel worm.

During one of my treks through Afghanistan, we lost our corkscrew.

We were compelled to live on food and water for several days.

Sunday, March 6, 2022

Organic patterns.

Organic patterns. 12 - 4" X4" Black canvas boards and Posca Pens.

Saturday, March 5, 2022

Random scribbling

Random scribbling is considered as art because its known as the first stage of life(early childhood) that involves the ability to use one’s hands and fingers with dexterity, this skill is vital to mastering hand-to-eye coordination mostly for children's those who are learning how to write. As this is being done by children’s it can be considered as the purest form of art done by purest heart with lots of ideas and creativity those are about to be expressed.

Analyzing a profile

In artistic point of view, profile means the side view or something which can be observed partially or from a side. Profile need not give the full information of a person but helps in analysing a part of it.

Bird, Hand, Spiral and Triangle

The hand is the most frequently symbolized part of the human body. It gives blessing, it is expressive. According to Aristotle, the hand is the "tool of tools." In general it is strength, power and protection. However, it can just as easily mean generosity, hospitality and stability; "lend a hand".

“The spiral is the rhythm of life. It characterizes the creative vital force of human and society, a symbol of unity of generations, spiritual and moral growth of man. It means the life order, the symbol of continuity, development, motion, and journey into the unknown.

The triangle of meaning is a model of communication that indicates the relationship among a thought, symbol, and referent, and highlights the indirect relationship between the symbol and the referent.

The meanings of birds and their symbolism varies greatly from representing immortality, departed souls, and spirit messengers to representing fertility, protection, and strength.