The Sculptural Still Lifes of Ron Isaacs

American artist Ron Isaacs has been a professor of painting and drawing for over 30 years, so one might expect him to be good at his craft. But even then, it’s hard not to be blown away by his three-dimensional still lifes, sculpted using nothing more than acrylic paints and layered birch plywood. Having mastered the technique of trompe l’oeil, Isaacs’ pieces look as if they’ve just been hung on the line to dry. Isaacs says he chooses to paint vintage clothing “for the way it continues the life of the past into the present, for its rich structures and colors and shapes, and for its anthropomorphic presence as a stand-in for the figure,” and plant materials “for too many reasons to list.”  I suppose that leaves it up to the viewer, then, to imagine what those reasons might be.