“The works in this exhibition illustrate how I abandon struggle and wondered, “What if?” What if I used the visual arts to tell my stories? With as much courage as I can manifest, the works in this exhibition connect stories to imagination.”
*** —Ronald K. De LongAn exhibition on display in The Baum School of Art’s David E. Rodale and Rodale Family Galleries from July 17–August 17, 2022 in Allentown, Pennsylvania.
THE SYLPF (SELF) WIND-SHIFT mixed media collage 30” x 22
SAILING IN THE IMAGINAL REALM * BY MARK WONSIDLER * PAGE FOUR
WHAT IF? * BY RONALD K. DE LONG * PAGE EIGHT
THE ARTWORK * LANDSCAPES * PAGE TWELVE
THE ARTWORK * SAILING THROUGH NEVERLAND FLOTILLA SERIES * PAGE EIGHTEEN
THE ARTWORK * PORTRAITS * PAGE TWENTY-FOUR
THE ARTWORK * ANOMALIES * PAGE THIRTY
THE ARTWORK * WIND-SHIFTS * PAGE THIRTY-SIX
FROM THE BAUM SCHOOL OF ART * BY SHANNON FUGATE * PAGE FORTY-TWO
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS * PAGE FORTY-FOUR
RESUME * PAGE FORTY-SIX
PARADISE GARDEN SERIES (DETAIL)
*** Louise Glück
Ron De Long’s studio teems with chance encounters of color, shape, and pattern. The former warehouse, used to store potatoes in the 19th century, now plays host to a menagerie of prompts for visual investigation. A giant crepe-paper butterfly grazes the ceiling while Japanese textiles drape languidly among the elements of an assembling and disassembling ecosystem: curious still-life components, stacks of drawings, paintings, and sculptures—some in progress, and others up for consideration.
Making its way among the bric-à-brac, a flotilla of ships bobs quietly in an invisible current. Here in the studio, the surfaces of their sails—which De Long has pieced together from collaged photographs, words, and decorative whorls—act as a kind of cam-
ouflage, downplaying their scale and determined progress. Where are they journeying from? one might ask. And where are they headed? De Long offers a partial explanation in the title, Sailing Through Neverland.
But the allusion to J.M. Barrie’s seminal character Peter Pan—and the vast imaginarium of stories, plays, and films that have burst into view in the 120 years since Peter’s first appearance—only scratches the surface of what is happening here. The fabric of the sails is carefully constructed from photographs and souvenirs of the artist’s own life: pictures of family members and friends, loves, school portraits, and other clues to a life growing up gay in rural Pennsylvania in the 1950s and 1960s. The word repeated most frequently is shadows, and it seems like no mistake that the prevailing palette of sepia, gray, and rust casts these ships into the province of memory. This is the terrain from which these works emerge.
But despite this heaviness, which could easily transform the vessels into ghost ships, they do emerge, and they are clearly on a journey both through and to Neverland. In fact, their journey may be precisely about transforming one kind of “neverland” (fueled by negation and impossibility) into another where the power of play still has
“ The master said: You must write what you see.
But what I see does not move me. The master answered: Change what you see.”
currency. How this transformation is possible is the subject of the works in this exhibition Wind-shifts, Mood-swings, and Other Anomalies: how artists transform the world they have received into a world in which they can live.
If you ask Ron De Long about how this kind of transformation can happen, he might answer: through teaching oneself to see possibilities, through imagination. As a teacher, De Long has spent decades showing students just how this shift of mind can occur, and the victories are hard won. He tells the story of his own experience as a very young student, scolded for trying to color an apple with a fist-full of multi-colored crayons instead of the requisite single color: red. Today, he wrestles with the imagination of his own students attempting to render an orange (similar problem) in a single hue. How many kinds of orange are contained in that object? he asks. And what other colors might be hiding there as well? What happens if you cut up your drawing and start over from there?
Aesthetically, existentially, this is the question: where can you travel if you see the given world as just a starting point? For many of us, this is a question of survival. The terms in which the world presents itself can be stifling to the point of annihilation. We need to set sail for somewhere else, perhaps a world that never was, or one that simply has not been seen yet.
“What if I mix two different kinds of paint to see what happens? What if I overlay the current image with stenciled geometry or glitter, what if I invert, bisect, or literally tear my composition to pieces?”
*** Ronald K. De LongThis journey can take many forms. Often, however, it begins by asking a single question: what if? In a recent artist talk at the Bradbury-Sullivan LGBT Community Center in Allentown, when asked about his material process, De Long summarized it along these lines: What if I mix two different kinds of paint to see what happens? What if I overlay the current image with stenciled geometry or glitter, what if I invert, bisect, or literally tear my composition to pieces? There is a sense of the experimental behind all this work, not unlike an alchemist combining rare elements in a beaker, seeing which will turn to gold.
This is true even of the works that seem to address traditional subjects like land-
scape. Although we see familiar features: garden flowers, stretches of green, apple trees in a field; one has the uncanny sense that the edges of the known universe are about to peel up, like a corner of loose wallpaper. De Long achieves this effect through something I would describe as shimmer. There is often a question as to whether the light is coming through the various trees and fountains, or from them. His marks and brushstrokes delight in a flow of energy that seems to begin in visual phenomena, but which tracks further into aura, or magnetism. To my eye, many of these landscapes suggest transitional moments, like twilight, when again the boundaries between real and imagined realms grow thin.
In her writing about contemporary mysticism, Cynthia Bourgeault describes what she calls an “Imaginal Realm” perceivable only through the “eye of the heart”:
“The imaginal penetrates this denser world in much the same way as the fragrance of perfume penetrates an entire room, subtly enlivening and harmonizing… The imaginal is that quality of aliveness moving through this realm, interpenetrating, cohering, filling things with the fragrance of implicit meaning whose lines do not converge in this world alone, but at a point beyond.”
What Bourgeault describes as attention to a subtle, otherworldly breeze, De Long might refer to as a windshift, an idea he borrows from the writing of American woodworker and architect George Nakashima. In his writing, Nakashima describes the way a living tree responds to changes in wind direction by turning to grow differently.
Metaphors for this kind of adaptability permeate De Long’s work. One can imagine the countless sets of course corrections needed to adjust the sails of the Neverland ships as they respond to hostile and friendly social currents. Elsewhere, butterflies open and close their wings (“sails”) to negotiate other kinds of windshifts. The figure of the butterfly appears in De Long’s series Manon Wind-shift Collages inspired by Jules Massenet’s 1884 opera Manon. Here, the collaged butterflies flit or float through an abstract space in which De Long translates the experience of music in visual terms. Shapes and lines evoke emerging and receding sounds, rippling and reverberating across the page with the brassiness of metallic paint and the low tones of matte surfaces. The butterflies, avatars of transformation, become our guides, suggesting that change, or a change in perception, is an essential tool for navigating the world. It is also worth noting that in some Latin cultures, effeminate gay men are referred to by the pejorative term mariposas (butterflies).
“Art thrives on the intersection and multiplication of meanings. De Long’s work is clearly marked by a strain of maximalism
a ”more is more” approach that both predates and survives the modernist predilection for reduction.”
While the immediate social currency of covert queer symbols like butterflies or Peter Pan has temporarily receded—that is to say, is less needed for survival in a moment of greater acceptance and visibility—certainly the historical importance of such coded communication forms part of the world, the shadowland or neverland, that De Long identifies as ripe for transformation. Historically, queer subcultures have relied for their safety on codes recognizable only to insiders. Take for example Oscar Wilde’s emblematic green carnation, or the extensive vocabulary of Polari, a language gay men used to communicate among themselves without fear of being understood by outsiders. The fact that these strategies were necessary points to the pressures, large and small, that shaped the individual lives of gay men in the last several generations.
Of course, many influences converge in the mind of an artist, and it is impossible to nail down or pigeonhole meaning. Butterflies, for example, are just as likely a symbol of the soul as of queerness. Art thrives on the intersection and multiplication of meanings. De Long’s work is clearly marked by a strain of maximalism—a ”more is more” approach—that both predates and survives the modernist predilection for
reduction. His self-portrait Windshift-The Self has spiritual and aesthetic roots as diverse as Byzantine mosaics, the sprawling decoration of Gustav Klimt, and 1960s psychedelia. Many of his studio portraits take up Henri Matisse’s experiments with the patterning of Japanese kimonos, here adding an additional layer of interest in the tattooed body of his model. There are glimpses of Charles Burchfield, medieval illuminated manuscripts, Odilon Redon, and many others. And yet, the particular intersection of ideas and personal narrative belongs to De Long alone.
Despite all this writing, the real meaning of De Long’s art inheres in the works themselves, in the material and aesthetic choices present in them, and the ripple effect these cause in those who view them. For me, many of these themes are drawn together in a quietly mercurial set of assemblages in which plastic and metal flowers sprout from old tin canisters. The material similarity between the tins and the vegetation suggests, once again, a world in which one thing can turn into another, where matter and the human soul are both malleable and resilient. *
Mark Wonsidler is Curator of Exhibitions and Collections for Lehigh University Art Galleries. A sculptor and writer, he resides in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania with his spouse, Dr. Bryan Weinberg-Wonsidler and their cat, Melville Eeyore. He was a student of Ron De Long’s at The Baum School of Art in the 1980s.
RAVEN’S QUOTE #9 oil on canvas 22” x 28”
What if you imagine a world that doesn’t exist? What if you regularly saw things in this world through the eyes of a child? How often has that thought entered your adult mind? I suggest many of us should see the world with a “What if!” attitude. How would our lives be different if we adopted this “What if!” portal to elevate our imagination. Dr. Ken Robinson, former Director of the Getty Center for Education once stated, “Imagination is the source of every form of human achievement. And it’s the one thing that I believe we are systematically jeopardizing in the way we educate our children and ourselves.”
What would your life be like if you twisted things, spilled forth crazy thoughts, turned inside out and danced wildly as you start trying to be creative? By ignoring conventional artistic processes as an artist, you may discover there is a whole new way of looking at life. Your ideas and visions might flow more frequently inside your cerebral cortex, and you just may find joy in being creative. We should do this because what we see in the world around us is connected to telling stories. And I have been know to tell stories!
Mia Shock, artist, philosopher, inspirational artist who influenced me during my early York Academy of Art training once told me never to paint or create anything I didn’t know well. She encouraged me to be open to possibilities and to know that artworks, or visual creations hold stories. She impressed in me that my best work would materialize from the reality of my own real-life experiences but also, she strongly recommended that I always consider a “What if!” philosophy. Artwork can and should enlighten others through the, often secret, compelling stories they contain. Imagery often conjures up one’s imagination. Who doesn’t like to look at a realistic landscape by the Hudson River School artists Thomas Cole and Frederick Church? Their reality is compelling. What if you imagine a world that reality
“ A painting is not a picture of an experience, but is the experience.”
*** Mark Rothko
never quite holds? What if the imagery becomes reality through your mind’s eye? I often look at a poster I have in my studio announcing a Mia Shock Exhibition. The image on the poster depicts a Noh Theater Mask surrounded with background shapes filled with Japanese characters. Of course, Mia was telling a story. Her wise words of advice to me still resonate in me to this day. What if!
The works in this exhibition illustrate how I abandon struggle and wondered, “What if?” What if I used the visual arts to tell my stories? With as much courage as I can manifest, the works in this exhibition connect stories to imagination. Some stories illustrate shimmer, some panache, a few are a trifle bit unclear, some hold drama and humor and to a lesser degree, some might even hold anger and cynicism about life and living. My past, my present and my dreams for the future are represented in these works. Using my reality as a subject and with the materials of the artists I created a body of imagery that is filled with stories about my journey. And the stories change. You have only to look deep within these works for answers that abound in my love to create. You may personally connect to what you see. I invented some pretty serendipitous and unique ways to express my stories. Some can be brilliant, some are epiphanies, and a few illustrate moments of whimsical melancholy that drift the way I see things.
One day I came across a Japanese verb in a book I was reading that caused me to marvel because it had so many different meanings – and ALL of them pertained to making one whole in a sense. The word is AKeRU. It means; to dawn, to become daylight; to pierce, to open, to end, to make a hole in, to start, to expire, to unwrap, to turn over. When
someone leaves this world, akeru refers to the empty space that it created, the opening in which a new beginning can take place. The true meaning of “Akeru” cannot be described with just a few words. Your name is your destiny, your heart’s desire and personality. I was amazed at the power of a single word that could suggest that to begin and to end are the same – a part of one never-ending cycle of renewal and healing. I thought, “What if I could create art without just one definition?
I am grateful to be able to borrow the wonderfully fluid, many-faceted meaning of a single word plucked out of its contexts from an enlightened tradition. I invite you take some time, travel with me visually in and through my stories. Explore, if you will, my simple abandonment, my visions about my Wind-Shifts, my Mood-Swings, and how they affect my work, my Anomalies that even I often don’t understand, in hopes that you might see an adult’s version of a child’s world. What if, during the exchange between artist and viewer, you become caught up in magic? Will the sparkle put a smile on your face? You might just discover your own Neverland! What if? *
WIND-SHIFT #28
mixed media
14” x 10”
the empty space that is created. the opening in which a new beginning can take place.
TO DAWN * TO BECOME DAYLIGHT TO PIERCE * TO OPEN
TO END * TO MAKE A HOLE IN TO START * TO EXPIRE
TO UNWRAP * TO TURN OVER
“I was amazed at the power of a single word that could suggest that to begin and to end are the same – a part of one never-ending cycle of renewal and healing. I thought, “What if I could create art without just one definition?”
*** Ronald K. De Long“
Landscapes, by definition, are visible features of an area of land, its landforms, and how they integrate with natural or man-made features. Combining both the landscape’s physical origins and the cultural overlay of human presence, landscapes reflect a living synthesis of people and place that is vital to local and natural identity. I can never, ever create the spectacular landscape manifested by the original creator; however, in my mind’s eye, I am able to divulge my imagination — my ideas of invented shimmering spaces — and create joy filled places. If I capture a sparkle of a moment of a land place it is original and not copied. Happiness is me making my own landscape worlds! *
A true artist is not one who is inspired, but one who inspires others.”
*** Salvador Dali
GARDENS TOPIARY GARDEN
LONGWOOD GARDENS FRENCH FOUNTAIN #1
*** Andy Warhol
Where is Neverland in real life? As a lad, I was captivated by the television program featuring Mary Martin as Peter Pan. In the story Peter rescued Tinker Bell by calling on all the children who believe in fairies to clap their hands. No more needed to be said — I clapped my hardest! I believe in fairies, and it’s funny how the meaning of the word has been expanded as I matured.
Sixty-nine years later I was compelled to create a series of sailing ships as a metaphor for my lifelong search for Neverland. These reflect the people, places and things that were a part of me. In my fantasies I longed to discover a land where things were secure, safe from harm and where fairies might be protected from the evils that exist in the world. It wasn’t so during my youth. Today it is getting better. However, my search for Neverland continues! *
“Art is what you can get away with ”
SAILING THROUGH NEVERLAND #5 (FRONT VIEW) mixed media assemblage 33” x 40” x 8”
SAILING THROUGH NEVERLAND #5 (BACK VIEW)
mixed media assemblage 33” x 40” x 8”
SAILING THROUGH NEVERLAND #1 (FRONT VIEW)
mixed media assemblage 16.5” x 50” x 10”
SAILING THROUGH NEVERLAND #1 (BACK VIEW)
mixed media assemblage 33” x 40” x 8”
SAILING THROUGH NEVERLAND #2 (FRONT VIEW)
mixed media assemblage 16” x 33” x 5.5”
SAILING THROUGH NEVERLAND #2 (BACK VIEW)
mixed media assemblage 16” x 33” x 5.5”
SAILING THROUGH NEVERLAND #3 (FRONT VIEW)
mixed media assemblage 41” x 50.5” x 9”
SAILING THROUGH NEVERLAND #3 (BACK VIEW)
mixed media assemblage 41” x 50.5” x 9”
SAILING THROUGH NEVERLAND #4 (FRONT VIEW)
mixed media assemblage 30” x 46” x 7”
SAILING THROUGH NEVERLAND #4 (BACK VIEW) mixed media assemblage 30” x 46” x 7”
“
In literature, the term portrait refers to a written description of a person or thing. A written portrait often gives deep insight and offers an analysis that goes far beyond the superficial. In literature, a portrait of a character is a subtle combination of fact and fiction, exploring the individual psychology of the character in the wider context of their environment. When the subject of the narrative is a figure that captures my attention, this phenomenon frees me to create a compelling and dramatic portrait of the person that draws on imaginative invention for verisimilitude.
Painting portraits reveals much about the artist’s story. When I encounter a person, I see them as more than just the physicality of the living. I see beyond the surface and choose to take a deeper dive into an imagined world of the aura that surrounds them. A portrait to me is more than just a visual representation of the wholeness of the being, but rather, a fraction of a moment in time that caught my attention about someone. *
I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free”
*** Andy Warhol
Anomalies are something that deviates from what is standard, normal, or expected. In life I’ve come to experience happenings, events, and behaviors by people that more than often deviated from what was considered a “norm” in nature and human social standards. Examples include: Me watching the behaviors of a murder of crows as they looked down on me from above —crows communicating among themselves. Also, as a lad, I was intrigued with the unusual growth on the trunk of a tree that is known as a burl. It wasn’t your typical tree trunk. These moments impact my thinking in unconventional ways. Creating an imagined flotilla of ships with photo image sails is the result of the deviation from the standard. The impact of J.M. Barrie’s “Peter Pan” in my mind was an anomaly. Or, why not float cucumber boats on Sweitzer Creek? Instead of real flowers, why not create a bouquet of flowers using materials that deviate from the norm? Anomalies interest me! *
“Art is never finished, only abandoned”
*** Leonardo da Vinci
GLASS BIRD STILL LIFE
THE GREEN VASE
ACME
PARADISE
RAVEN’S QUOTE #1
watercolor 7.5” x 11.5”
RAVEN’S QUOTE #12 oil on canvas 22” x 30”
RAVEN’S QUOTE #3
watercolor
7.5” x 11”
RAVEN’S QUOTE #2 watercolor 7.5” x 11.5”
QUOTE
QUOTE
QUOTE
Sometimes the spirit of a work of art isn’t totally realized in the whole of the art. Sometimes, if we examine a part of the whole, we give art making a chance and a second life. I call this process “Wind-shift!”
A major factor that determines wind direction is air pressure. Wind travels from high pressure areas to low pressure areas, while heat and pressure also allow the wind to shift direction. Deep within my creative process are varying pressures. I am encouraged to experiment with the basic principles and elements of classic art making. I explore atypical directions in both composition and process. As the pressures of my art making heat up or cool down, I am vulnerable to mood swings in the processes. Why not tear apart a large composition to explore the serendipity of what it looks like in smaller pieces? The process of deconstructing a work of art comes from a greater whole! Tearing apart and analyzing the process can be an enlightening experience toward a greater understanding! *
“There’s a spirit in trees that’s very deep, and in order to produce a fine piece of furniture, the spirit lives on, and I can give it a second life.”
*** George Nakashima
WIND-SHIFT #30
mixed media
14” x 10”
WIND-SHIFT #19
mixed media
7” x 5”
WIND-SHIFT #26
mixed media
14” x 10”
WIND-SHIFT #22
mixed media
10” x 7”
WIND-SHIFT #18
mixed media
7” x 5”
WIND-SHIFT #4
mixed media
7” x 5”
WIND-SHIFT #7
mixed media
7” x 5”
WIND-SHIFT #27
mixed media
14” x 10”
WIND-SHIFT #11
mixed media
5” x 7
WIND-SHIFT #8
mixed media
5” x 7”
WIND-SHIFT #20 mixed media 7” x 5”
The Baum School of Art is pleased to present this very special solo exhibition of Ronald K. De Long’s work. Wind-shifts, Moodswings, and Other Anomalies reflect Ron’s endless curiosity, creativity, and dedication to exploring his own personal artistic vision while inspiring us all to stay connected to our own imagination. We are thrilled to present the work of such an accomplished artist, who has given and shared so much of himself with our community. Ron’s creativity is only matched by his generosity.
As an educator, Ron has inspired many art students as well as fellow educators for decades. From after-school students at The Baum School of Art, to college students at Penn State Lehigh Valley, to arts educator professional development through Crayola’s Art as a Way of Learning, to virtual and in-person adult learners in his studio and more. Ron’s mentorship has impacted and continues to motivate thousands of creative minds of all ages.
His personal studio, Studio & Gallery 2908, is not only where Ron creates and instructs, but also home to the artistic estate of the late artist Hubert Davis. Ron single-handedly revived the legacy of this great artist of the past, continuing to preserve and share Hubert’s art with the community. In addition, he has enthusiastically promoted the work of his fellow artists through group exhibitions and events at his studio.
Our community’s past and present artists are not the only beneficiaries of his generosity. The creation of the Ronald K. De Long Gallery at Penn State Lehigh Valley is a legacy of celebrating creativity for future aspiring artists in our region. Through his local philanthropic, Ron ensures that we can continue to develop our future artists and art enthusiasts by making gallery exhibitions a part of their everyday academic experience. Additionally, we thank Ron for supporting The Baum School of Art throughout the years. Proceeds from the sale of this catalog and from Ron’s Shifting Winds Workshop benefit The Baum School of Art. We are grateful again for his philanthropy and support of the arts.
As a community, we are incredibly lucky to have Ron in our lives to inspire us, uplift us, and remind us that creativity and curiosity are essential in our daily lives. His warmth, generosity and creativity encourages both friends and strangers alike. We are proud to celebrate Ron and are truly grateful for his many contributions to the arts. *
“ Don’t think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it’s good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art.”
*** Andy Warhol
Early in life, Janet Wehr, illustrator of the 2nd Edition of The Peterson Field Guide of Eastern Trees, who as a next-door neighbor living in New Tripoli, PA, along a country road, took me under her artist “wing” and gifted me a desk filled with art supplies prior to a move with her husband to New England. She, I’m sure, wondered, “What if?”
I will always be grateful to an amazing fine artist, Mia Shock, who at the York Academy of Arts enthusiastically encouraged me to get my art education degree and who strongly demonstrated to me to always use the elements and principals of design to create works that tell my imaginative story.
“ I am thankful to many individual shining constellations in my life, mentors, friends, teachers, and loved ones who have inspired me to think about life and living , using my creativity differently to tell stories.”
*** Ronald K. De LongKAFFEE HAG FLORAL bronze mixed media assemblage 5.5” x 5.5” x 11”
I’ll always keep close to my heart the advice Rosemarie Sloat, noted National Portrait Gallery artist, Professor of Painting at Kutztown University planted in my brain. She encouraged me to push boundaries and not to try to capture the world I see, but rather she encouraged me to capture my world, the world I know and to always make my art tell stories.
I am grateful to John Terelak, Director of the Gloucester Academy of Art when he recognized that my stylized landscapes where unusual and that noted jurors would see in these works my ability to express imagination.
I can never forget when Milton Glaser, the most celebrated graphic designer in the US, who was substitute teaching a class I took at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art, took my drawing tool, then marked my work with his marks along with verbal comments that I should be freer with my mark making which would allow my personality to invade my art. I will never forget that moment in time.
I am grateful to so many noted Lehigh Valley artist/educators who saw my valuable educational skills and gave me opportunities to teach my theories to students. Dr. Rudy Ackerman, his wife Rose and to Ann Lalik from The Baum School of Art, Allentown, PA invited me to join a noted Lehigh Valley school of artists.
To my college advisor Charles Laincz, Artist at Leisure, Known Curmudgeon and Friend to the Universe and His Own
and former Associate Professor of Photography at Kutztown University of Pennsylvania, encouraged me by way of a camera to look at the world through a different lens.
I will always be grateful to Dr. Jim Carroll, Kutztown Professor of Art and Director of the Japa (New Arts Program) who encouraged me always to shift my paradigms. His influence guided me to “Be” and “Do” and to just make art.
I want to thank Ann Lalik, Gallery Director at PSU Lehigh Valley for her friendship and for believing in my creative talents and who along with Dr. Ann Williams, Chancellor at Pennsylvania State University, Lehigh Valley guided me through the philanthropic adventure to name a space, The Ronald K. De Long Gallery at PSU Lehigh Valley. Ann and her husband John remain valued friends to this day.
I am also grateful to Shannon Fugate, Executive Director of The Baum School of Art, her Board along with the devoted team of dedicated staff at The Baum School of Art for affording me the opportunity to tell my story by way of this exhibition in the David E. Rodale and Rodale Family Galleries at the school. A huge thank you to Lauren Faurl for the design of the exhibition catalogue. Without Lauren’s skill and help this publication would not have happened. I also want to thank Emily Strong for the installation of the art in the exhibition.
I especially want to thank Mark Wonsidler, one of my former Baum School of Art students who currenty serves as a Curator of Exhibitions and Collections at Lehigh University, for his friendship and his gift of words about my work.
I want to add a special thank you to Gaston Foster, A Wizardustries Production for the video work shown during the artist reception.
Lastly, I am grateful to my friends who are my family. I want to acknowledge my former life partner, Charles Mc Anall III, who left this world much too early, for his encouragement and support for over 25 years.
And most importantly I push a “Love-filled Callout” to acknowledge my current life partner, Vincent Di Cicco, who always deals with my insecurities, does not abandon me during my “What if behaviors!”, and who still shows me what it is like to love life and living. I am blessed in many ways. *
Artist
Studio & Gallery 2908 LLC
2908 Rockdale Road, Slatington, PA 18080
610.428.1548 * rkdelong@ptd.net * www.rdelong.com
PROFILE
* Artist at Studio & Gallery 2908 LLC, Slatington, PA
* Art Lecturer, Pennsylvania State University, Lehigh Valley – Fine Arts
* Instruction in Drawing, Painting, Printmaking – 2011-19
* Formerly, Manager, Art Education, Educational Curriculum & Resources with Crayola – 1995-2011
* Teaching positions – Penn State University; Moravian College; Cedar Crest College; Kutztown University; The Baum School of Art; PA Public Schools – All levels
PHILANTHROPY
* Named & funded the Ronald K. De Long Gallery, Pennsylvania State University, Center Valley, Campus, PA - 2004
* 2013–Present Metal Work/Jewelry Design-Pennsylvania State University, Lehigh Valley Campus
* 2005 Business Leadership Management Training-Crayola, Easton, PA
* 1994 National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC - Summer Institute for Teachers – Modernism from 1914 to the Present
* 1994 Kutztown University - NAEA Criticism Institute
* 1991 Kutztown University - NAEA Assessment Institute
* 1990 Kutztown University - Post Graduate - 17th Century Flemish and Dutch Art History, Kutztown University, Kutztown, PA
* 1974 University of Salzburg, Salzburg, Austria - Consortia for International Education – fine art and European Cinema
* 1981 John Terelak, Director of Gloucester Academy of Art, Gloucester, MA – private instruction
* 1987 Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA – Fine Art
* 1975 Rosemarie Sloat, Private Instruction - Mexico/Florida Keys
* 1972 B.S. in Art Education, Kutztown University, Kutztown, PA
* 1967 York Academy of Art, York, PA – Fine Art
PUBLICATIONS
* 2019 Arts Ovation 2019 Award Recipients, Allentown Morning Call, October 2019
* 2017 Hubert Davis – Pennsylvania State University, Center Valley, PA – Ronald K. De Long Gallery, Exhibition Catalogue
* 2017 Hubert Davis – Costume Designs, Gallery 514, Allentown, PA – Morning Call, Allentown, PA
* 2017 Hubert Davis–Greece & Guatamala – Bradbury Sullivan Gallery, Allentown, PA – Morning Call, Allentown, PA
* 2015 Hubert Davis – Public Radio Interview – WDIY, Bethlehem, PA
* 2014 Eighth Street Bridge Exhibition Catalogue, Pennsylvania State University, Ronald K. De Long Gallery, Fall
* 2013 Connecting For the Future-The 8th Street Bridge Turns 100, Pennsylvania State University, Lehigh Valley
* 1988 Art Across the Ages – Intergenerational art programming in Public Schools, Kutztown University, Kutztown, PA
* 1979 Captain America – illustration published in Valley Monthly Magazine, Allentown, PA - September
EXHIBITIONS – FINE ART AWARDS – RESIDENCIES
* Wind-Shifts, Mood-Swings and other Anomalies! Works by Ron De Long, Baum School of Art Galleries, July–August 2022
* Crucified – paintings by Ron De Long, Bradbury Sullivan Galleries, April/May 2022
* Botanicals – watercolors, First Presbyterian Church Fine Arts Gallery, Allentown, PA – November 2017
* Invitational Portrait Exhibition, Bethlehem Fine Arts Commission, Bethlehem, PA – Spring 2017
* Les Jardins des Paradis – solo exhibition, paintings & assemblage sculpture, Gallery 514, Civic Theater, Allentown, PA - November 2016
* Sailing in Search of Neverland – invitational, Gallery 724, Allentown, PA – March 2016
* Sailing in Search of Neverland – assemblage installation, Ronald K De Long Gallery, Pennsylvania State University, Center Valley, PA September 2015
* Recent Works – Studio & Gallery 2908, Slatington, PA – November 2015
* Recent Prints – Watercolor, Inks, Ephemera, Collage – Lehigh Valley Printmakers Society Invitational: Reddstone Gallery, Bethlehem, PA. – Fall 2015
* Lehigh Valley Printmakers Invitational – Civic 514 Gallery, Allentown, PA – 2015
* We Make an Impression - Paradise Lost - Bronze, Fossils, Semi-precious Gems, National Juried Exhibition, Juror: Ricardo Vera, Lehigh University, Mayfair Festival of the Arts, Ag Hall Gallery, Allentown, PA - 2014
* Cocktails & Collecting - Invitational, watercolor, inks, ephemera, 2014, Allentown Art Museum, Allentown, PA – 2014
* 8th Street Bridge – Invitational, Oil on Canvas, 2013, Penn State Lehigh Valley Art Gallery, Center Valley, PA - 2014
* Mayfair Regional Festival of the Arts - National Invitational Exhibition, bronze, wood, mixed media, semi-precious gems, Agricultural Hall Gallery, Allentown, PA- 2013
* Recent Works - Watercolors, Oils, Mixed Media – Cocktails & Collecting – Allentown Art Museum, Allentown, PA – November 2013
* Twelve Gays & A Straight – Invitational Exhibition, Santa Bannon Fine Art Gallery, Bethlehem, PA - Fall, 2012
* Art Without Limits – Mayfair Juried Exhibition – Allentown, PA – 2013
* Paradise Garden Series – Invitational Juried Exhibition, Freyberger Gallery, Reading, PA – Fall 2013
* Music Mural – Commission, Oil on Canvas, Penn State Lehigh Valley, Center Valley, PA – Fall - 2012
* De Long & Tereshko – Invitational Exhibition, Home & Planet Gallery, Bethlehem, PA – Spring 2011
* Faculty Exhibition – Baum School of Art, Allentown, PA, Spring 2011
* Works by De Long – Lehigh Valley Health Care Network, Juror– Dr. Christine Isabelle Oaklander - Allentown, PA – Fall 2011
* Evoking Archetypes – Invitational, Fox Optical Art Gallery, September 2011
* Artist in Residence – Forks School, Easton School District, Easton, PA –September 2010
* Art in Miami, Juried Exhibition, Miami, FL – November 2010
This portion of the resume reflects from 2010 to present. For a full list of past exhibitions, please contact Ronald K. De Long
WISHING WELL SPIRIT bronze mixed media assemblage, with semi-precious stones 48” x 54”
If you have questions, or are interested in learning more about Ronald K. De Long, contact him at rkdelong@ptd.net
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