Lindsey’s art featured in area studio’s 80th celebration
By Sherry Lucas
Artist Ron Lindsey was still a student at Clinton High when his first job launched a journey that became a lifelong pursuit. Now toward the other end of a career settled in retirement but still sparked by creative forays, a solo exhibition in Jackson honors his start in art, right where it happened.
The show is part of Wolfe Studio’s celebration of its eighty-year creative legacy in Mississippi this year. Artists Karl and Mildred Nungester Wolfe built their studio in 1946, on wooded property off Old Canton Road, then outside Jackson’s city limits. Still nestled in a tranquil setting amid tall trees today, it feels far removed from the office buildings and the busy interstate near its borders.
The exhibition of about thirty artworks by Lindsey— mainly oil and acrylic paintings, plus some drawings and three-dimensional works — runs throughout August in the Wolfe Studio Gallery, 4308 Old Canton Road in Jackson. Visit during regular Wolfe Studio hours, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday.
As Wolfe Studio’s first staff member involved in ceramic production, Lindsey contributed to its creative output between 1969 and 1975, working alongside the Wolfes and their daughter, Bebe. Lindsey even ended up living there on the family compound for about three years, off and on.
“It was, of course, a completely new world to me,” said Lindsey, who as a young student was captivated by the work and surroundings. “I have to say that, just about everything I know about art, I learned from Karl and Mildred Nungester Wolfe.
“Showing at Wolfe Studio — what a huge honor that is.”
Wolfe Studio was Lindsey’s introduction to working with clay.
“I fell in love with it,” he said of the medium he continues to explore in new ways to this day. Forms he created at Wolfe Studio that are still sold there today include Ron’s Goat and Ron’s Duck. The show will include a few of his old and new clay pieces, including sawdust fired works that are his current focus.
Lindsey was born in Meridian, but his family moved to Clinton in 1963, “so I feel like a native,” he said. He found a thriving art community in the small town, with friends and fellow artists Wyatt Waters, Sam Beibers and the late Paul Fayard.
“We get together for our coffee klatch and encourage each other.”
Lindsey earned a degree in education with an art emphasis at Mississippi College. He taught art with Jackson Public Schools’ Power APAC and Callaway High for a few years, and then at Mississippi State Hospital for fourteen years.
His exhibition includes cityscapes of Vicksburg, still lifes, a few portraits and artworks inspired by his interest in Mexican painting and multiple trips to Mexico. Several works draw from past theme shows at Vicksburg’s Attic Gallery, centering on objects designated by gallery owner Lesley Silver, such as chairs, houses and dolls.
The paintings, owned by collectors, still hold fond memories for the artist, for their subject matter and/or the painting experience. The earliest one is a Vicksburg cityscape dating to 1988, and his first show at the Attic Gallery — “my very first real show, anywhere,” he said.
Lindsey’s 1993 Apartment Stove is a personal favorite, harking back to the kitchen in a long-time Clinton abode and the good deal he got from former landlord Carey Evans.
Love Birds and Egg Plants is treasured for its colors, and Para Poner la Mesa (To Set the Table), based on a page from a Spanish language textbook, gleams with touches of silver leaf.
Visit TheWolfeCreativeLegacy.org for information on additional exhibitions and events connected with Wolfe Studio’s 80th year celebration.
