Arts advocate Tess Emslie from Sydney, Australia currently resides in Denver. Looking to find ways during Covid-19 to stay connected with creative communities she started a popular arts blog and just posted this in-depth /reflective interview with me.

Taking Flight - . https://www.tessemslie.com/post/taking-flight

Evergreen artist Ron Isaacson left the world of commercial art to create a message of hope through creative re-use and purposeful storytelling.

Ron Isaacson invites you to visit his world. Sculpture, spirituality, and a desire for change are blended into a mythical world promoting creativity and sustainability. The Amazar Avians are elaborately crafted birds made from colorful upcycled leather scraps and brought to life by Ron's powerful storytelling. In this world, each bird has a history, a personality, and a purpose in spreading a message of hope and healing.

Twenty years ago, after earning national recognition as an entrepreneur, art marketing consultant, commercial gallerist, and artist, Ron Isaacson's world was upended. Ron purchased a vintage airstream and a motorcycle, left Illinois, and began his Grand Adventure in search of a place to settle and restart his life as an artist. One year and 6000 miles later, he stopped to visit friends in Evergreen, Colorado and never left.

Ron Isaacson is the creator and owner of Unbound Leather, hand-crafted, sustainably-made, one of a kind art pieces in the form of dazzling tropical birds, ceremonial feathers, flowers, leather-bound journals, and landscapes. The artist is also the mastermind behind the Amazar Avians and the forthcoming Amazar Tales book.

Ron Isaacson shares his story in an interview.

What prompted your shift from commercial art sales and marketing in the city to studio practice in a small mountain town?

If I may, let me provide a brief backstory your readers might find interesting.

Like many artists, I had always envisioned having my own studio & gallery space. After getting my degree in art I briefly taught middle school students and then adults on the North Shore of Chicago, ultimately opening a small storefront school to support my sculpture studio in the basement. The school evolved and I brought in other instructors teaching clay, jewelry, fiber, and metal sculpture. Concurrently I exhibited and sold my creations at art festivals throughout the Midwest. As my work evolved and I started winning awards, I met and became friends with a number of talented artists from all around the country.

Learning I had a storefront, a few artists asked if they could leave work with me between shows. Soon the walls and shelves of the school were adorned with pieces by those talented artists. As it happened, my school had lots of window exposure and was located on a busy street. People stopped in and artwork sold. Without planning it, I had also become a gallery owner.

Now I seem to be one of those unfortunate/fortunate souls who are both right-brain/left-brain oriented. I am creative, artistic, and have a keen understanding of what it takes to run a successful business. As I developed a following for my own creations, I also found myself spending time helping other artists develop their marketing strategies and materials.

There came a time when the school's lease was up for renewal, I desired a larger studio, and I felt the need to define who I was as an artist. Was I an art teacher? A gallery owner? A visual artist/sculptor?

I made a decision, did some research, closed the school, and opened a small 1,000 sq. ft. gallery called Mindscape in Evanston, Illinois, that had a large basement I could convert into a welding studio. It was 1973. As the year progressed the gallery developed a loyal following and my studio time grew shorter. The next year a retail space three times the size came available. It was a beautiful corner space just a block away. I grabbed it, adding more artists and a larger staff as Mindscape blossomed. A few more years passed and my studio time became non-existent. An adjacent storefront became available and again Mindscape expanded, cultivating a client base of art collectors across the country. As my reputation grew, I was asked to serve on numerous arts-related boards and became a sought after arts marketing consultant, curator, and juror.

More years passed and it was 1990. The opportunity to expand presented itself and I purchased a 10,000 sq. ft. building across from the gallery. Concurrently, looking to develop new markets I opened another 10,000 sq. ft. gallery in the Chicago’s River North Gallery District that specialized in selling large-scale works to major collectors and corporations. I soon had twenty-seven employees, represented over a thousand of the country’s finest artists, was operating two highly successful galleries and winning recognition for ten consecutive years as having created one of the Top 100 Contemporary American Fine Craft Galleries in the US.

The gallery had become my art form: a living, breathing, and ever-changing evolving sculpture with components comprised of artists, their creations, collectors, and patrons.

Then, in the late 1990s, the economy took a nosedive. My right-brain business mentality called out to acknowledge reality and reconsider the responsibilities that went with my creation. Mindscape was supporting dozens of employees and all those artists that were relying on me. It was time to dismantle and simplify my life. By 1999 with a heavy heart I had sold off part of the gallery, closed the corporate art business, sold the building, and optimistically moved on.

I continued to consult with other galleries and artists, took on some other creative challenges that would provide an income, and finally had a chance to build a three-car garage/studio where I could once again pursue life as a sculptor.

You asked what brought me to creating a life in a small town in the foothills above Denver.

In 2010 my life changed again. My daughter had grown, left home to pursue her own career path after completing her final year at Harvard Law and my partner/wife of thirty-five years felt we were no longer destined for a life together.

Once again those questions that haunt one's soul invaded my life. Compelled to try and define who I was and who I wished to be, I cashed in my 401K savings, bought a vintage 1983 Airstream motorcoach and a motorcycle, and restored an old 1950s camper/trailer to carry a few possessions that held precious memories along with a few boxes of supplies from my art studio. Saying goodbye to all I had known, I took to the road to rediscover my identity. The experience forced me to dig deep, to go within and embrace elements that brought joy and purpose to my existence. I called it my Grand Adventure.

A year later my quest brought me to Evergreen, CO, for a weekend celebration with extended family. Encounters with other creative spirits, local musicians, and the arts community kept putting off my departure. Weeks went by and I found myself sitting on the mountainside above Evergreen Lake and playing my harmonica pondering my future. Late July monsoon rains filled the sky as I played on. Cleansing rain poured down and then the clouds gave way to brilliant blue skies. I had traveled about 6,000 miles crisscrossing the country east of Colorado searching for a place to set down roots. Friends were waiting to welcome me in northern California.

As I exhaled and set down my harp I heard myself ask, “What is it that I’m truly searching for?” “Someplace like this” came my reply.

Two weeks later my daughter came for a weekend visit. I showed her around the town and we explored the mountains. As we sat at the top of Mt. Evans soaking it all in, she turned to me and said “I think you may have found your new home."

And so I set foot on a path to establish a life in the mountains of Evergreen, allowing synchronicity and serendipity to guide my actions. Far from the frantic city life that once defined me, love and joy began to fill my days and my artist spirit soared.

What inspired you to create the story and mission behind the creatures that you create, the Amazar Avians?

To me, being an artist involves a synergistic blend of facets. I’m known to others as a sculptor/musician/wordsmith/storyteller and a catalyst for change. Quite simply, I’m an aged hippy who always has and will continue to believe that the world would be a better place if people would embrace and promote the concepts of peace, love, harmony, and understanding.

As a student of art history, a fan of fables, and a lover of music and theatre, I look to evoke an emotional response from audiences. I believe the arts have the ability to cross boundaries: to bridge divides and impact social consciousness. Through my earliest creations, I’d always tried to communicate a message to the viewer, to tap an emotion, call forth a question, or inspire personal reflection.

The ability to imagine and anthropomorphize is an attribute most humans have. People envision familiar shapes in clouds and mountain ranges. They comment on the expressions displayed on the faces of animals and conjure adventures from myth and legend. So I wondered, “Could I as an artist, a storyteller, create an extended series of sculptures that stimulated a desired response? “

During my creative process, my most successful work is never forced. It flows forth from deep within or possibly through me from some source beyond my understanding. Around five years ago I was having fun creating birds from recycled/repurposed leather and decided to take it a step further. I set myself a challenge as an arts activist. I would use the framework of successful storytellers to share my observations on the state and fate of the environment and do what I could as an artist to be a catalyst for change. I would develop a complex setting, create a theme and a cast of characters that would interact with my audience, and carry messages that might stimulate others to reflect on the world around them. Bit by bit a world inhabited by Amazar Avians began to take form.

Let me share an excerpt from my Amazar Tales….

… Legend has it, through a portal in the multiverse is a realm where an extraordinary species of Avians have existed for eons, discreetly visiting earth to help those in need by bringing hope peace, goodwill, and positive energy wherever they appear.

In recent years an Amazar portal appeared in a mountain art studio above Denver compelling the artist to bring form to these Amazar Avians: the healers, guardians, sages, and the wise, bright with leathery plumage and help them in their mission to bring about a more harmonious balance to the planet and its inhabitants.

Have you seen them yet?

I invite your readers to learn more about an amazing realm from another space/time that’s filled with hope and wonder. A visit here will introduce them to an evolving collective of exceptional Amazar Avians who offer sage wisdom and flocks of different Amazar Avian species who roam our planet to aid in its recovery from the consequences of a consumer-driven society. They’ll discover the Crystal Beak Chronicles and have an opportunity to participate as a Wing Writer or an Amazar Ambassador. They can even go behind the scenes into my studio for a glimpse at the hatching and birthing of some notable Amazar Avians while gaining insights into my creative process.

The process of creating a purposeful series of artworks like this is arduous. As a sculptor, I’m bringing to life a cast of flamboyant and subtle winged characters and developing a fantasy ecosystem that includes Crystal Forever Gardens where my Avians perch while communicating with the world. As an author, I’m crafting a collection of compelling tales that will appeal to young and old alike. As an artist now in my seventies, aware of my mortality and the legacy I leave in my wake, I feel it’s important to do more than just create stuff that will temporarily adorn a room or fill a space.

Like others who pursue an artistic vision, I often wonder if I’m capable of creating something lasting and worthwhile. In reflecting as I’ve done on some of the impossible things I’ve previously brought to life or had a profound impact on as an artist-entrepreneur, the challenges of introducing my Amazar Avians to the world is not totally outside my abilities. In a world that applauds tales of adventure, quests for knowledge, and lessons learned around fireside chats, I think perhaps someday, if I craft it well, Tales of Amazar Avians might also echo throughout the land.

What is creative re-use and why is it important?

As a child, I found I had a gift. It was the ability to see possibilities and assemble compositions of shape, texture, color, and form that eluded others. While developing that talent, I found what enticed me most was the challenge of transforming everyday objects into things wild and wonderful. Fortunately, my parents and grandfathers encouraged my creativity and inquisitive spirit. I was blessed with one grandfather who was an inventor of all sorts of wondrous things and had a successful career as a furrier and a maker of fine leather coats. My other grandfather had initially supported his family by selling recycled building materials and ultimately with my father had developed a plumbing supply business on the south side of Chicago. Its scrapyard was my playground for my formative years.

In Chicago, as a sculptor, a lack of funds forced me to be creative in finding materials. Fearlessly I would scrounge demolished building sites for hefty cornerstones and make friends with cemetery caretakers to obtain discarded broken marble headstones so I could practice stone carving techniques. I begged local landscapers for sections of tree trunks I could cut and chisel and I explored numerous other ways to transform a host of found objects. I dumpster-dived industrial sites for steel to weld and forged and fabricated sculptures out of discards from a multitude of sources. Junkyards were heavenly places for me.

A number of years ago I began conversations with other artists with similar passions and came across the term 'creative re-use'. Encouraging that concept has since become one of my major focuses as an artist-activist.

Building on projects pioneered by a few forward-thinking national and international art communities, the concept of creative re-use has proven successful in encouraging artists to view trash as potential treasure and has resulted in rescuing tons of materials from landfills. It has also become a vehicle to inform and stimulate dialogue between artists/creatives in all disciplines, community members, institutions, and public/private entities involved in addressing issues and finding solutions involving sustainability, recycling, and upcycling. Creative re-use is inspiring new ways of thinking regarding the byproducts and waste created by a consumer-driven society.

What are the advantages of working with leather? What attracted you to working with leather?

When I left Chicago I had to leave a studio filled with possibilities. My welding equipment, piles of odd recyclable material, and the tools I used to create large scale metal sculptures could not accompany me on my Grand Adventure. I chose instead to revisit an art form that helped pay my tuition as an art student.

As I mentioned earlier, my grandfather was a tailor who made custom leather and fur coats. Long retired, he still had a big industrial sewing machine in his garage workspace. When I was around six I spotted it buried under a pile of stuff and asked about it. Instead of answering my question, he dragged out a few dusty boxes from under his workbench whose contents held layers of amazing leather scraps. He talked about how he crafted them into glorious warm coats. He told me about honoring and respecting the animal hides and the animals that had sacrificed themselves to keep us warm. Over the years he taught me how to sew on that huge mysterious machine and gave me some of those leather scraps.

Fast forward to the mid-1960s during the summer of love where I found myself in California on the streets of Berkley. I was living in a large Victorian house with a bunch of other hippies. Low on funds, my sleeping space was in a large closet under a spiral staircase. While wandering the streets I came upon some craftsmen selling leather headbands, chokers, and fringed pouches. I struck up a friendship and joined in to make stuff.

After returning to Chicago for school, I happen to be driving through an old warehouse district checking out dumpsters for possible treasures and spotted a large sign advertising a Tannery a few blocks away. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, Chicago was known for being the home of the Union Stockyards where railroads brought in boxcars of sheep and cattle for processing. Dozens of major Leather Tanneries were also in operation then, treating, curing, dyeing, and processing leather for shipment to manufacturing facilities across the country.

I followed that sign which led me to Tannery Row, where the last of the great tanneries still remained. After visiting some of them and talking my way into seeing the production rooms, I struck a deal with some floor managers. I would come a few nights a week and sweep the floors for free if I could keep and recycle the leather scraps, blemished and damaged hides that were being tossed away. I did that for around three years and created my own business designing and selling leather headbands, chokers, purses, bags, and elaborate fringed vests to the head shops and boutiques in Old Town Chicago. My earnings helped fund my art school tuition.

I mentioned earlier that when I embarked on my Grand Adventure, having recognized the impossibility of lugging metal sculpture components and equipment on my journey, instead I had grabbed a few boxes of other precious things. One of those boxes held remnants of leather given to me by my grandfather fifty-plus years earlier. Another box held leather punches, sewing needles, skives, blades, and other leather-working tools. I thought perhaps I could once again satisfy my creative spirit by creating items out of recycled leather and sell them at small festivals as I traveled the country.

Not long after making the decision to start life anew in Evergreen, I rented a tiny studio/living space in the basement of a home not far from Evergreen Lake.

I cobbled together a workbench and created a small art studio called Unbound Leathers. You can discover some of my early creations and see the evolution of my work here.

What can readers expect to experience in your forthcoming book, Amazar Tales?

One of the missions of the Amazar Avians is to empower others to get involved and share messages of hope for the future. Encouraged by fans and collectors of my Amazar Avian sculptures, as the creator of Amazar Tales I’ve decided to offer other creatives a free limited license to utilize the concept and characters that encompass the world of Amazar Avians in the creation of short stories, poems, fables, or performance art and submit their work for consideration and possible inclusion in online or print versions of Amazar Tales. I refer to these people as Amazar Wing Writers and they will have opportunities to participate in events and exhibitions featuring the world of Amazar Avians.

What is a Wing Writer?

They are storytellers & scribes who chronicle tales, fables, and missives that impart sage wisdom and stories told of the adventures of a race of Amazar Avians. They have been chosen by members of the Amazar Earth Alliance, a team that has come through a portal deep within the multi-fold dimensions of time and space to help heal our planet and the inhabitants that dwell upon it.

Wing Writers are special creatures. They are creative souls with a mission to help others chart a path to a better tomorrow. They join in a collective voice, gentle and kind, with love for the planet and all the creatures that dwell within to share tales that stir the soul and tell of better ways and better paths to travel.

Perhaps an emissary of Amazar has perched on your shoulder and whispered in your ear a tale worth telling. Here’s how to find out.

I invite you to explore the mystic realm of Amazar whose Avian inhabitants can be found here. There you’ll discover flocks of species with special attributes, extraordinary Avians with special powers, and information on missions to heal, spread hope, compassion, love, and bring joy to others.

Does that message resonate within you? Do you want to be part of spreading that message?

Contact me for information on submissions and my free one-time limited-use license agreement. Story elements, general themes, backgrounds on main characters, flocks of supporting cast members, opportunities for a myriad of adventures, and a premise to challenge your Imagination await you.

Email ronisaacson@me.com to make an appointment to visit the artist's Evergreen Studio.

Meet Ron Isaacson

Tell us a little about your work and artistic practice?

Legend has it, through a portal in the multiverse there is a realm where an extraordinary species of Avians have existed for eons, discreetly visiting earth to help those in need by bringing healing energy, peace, goodwill and positive energy wherever they appear. In recent years an Amazar portal appeared in a mountain art studio in Evergreen, compelling the artist to bring form to the Amazar Avians: the healers, guardians, sages and the wise, bright with leathery plumage helping them in their mission to bring about a more harmonious balance to the planet and its inhabitants.

Have you see them yet?

People visiting my studio (by appointment or during the Evergreen Open Door Studio tour September 19th & 20th), have the opportunity to explore flocks of Amazar Avians and discover an ecosphere of Forever Gardens, landscapes and sacred objects. As they’re introduced to stories, fables, and bits of sage wisdom found in my Amazar Tales, they have the opportunity to witness creations being sculpted from recycled vintage leathers on armatures fabricated from found objects, surrounded by ancient sacred crystals.

Amazar Avians have been brought to life to bring attention to ecological and social issues facing the planet and provide an opportunity to introduce the concept of Creative Re-Use encouraging insightful sustainable thinking on ways to offer extended life to materials that might otherwise end up in landfills.
Visit www.amazaravians.world and go behind the scenes to discover more or follow this link http://voyagedenver.com/interview/meet-amazar- aviansunbound-leathers-less-hour-west-denvers-museum-contemporary-art-foothills- jefferson-county-sits-mountain-studio-artistsculptor-ron-isa/ to read a comprehensive article about my creations.

What have you been doing to keep occupied during the pandemic and how has your creative process been impacted?

As an artist I’ve been using recycled materials as sculptural components for over 50 years. Obtaining those materials at affordable prices typically involves sifting through other peoples discards, left overs, trash and stuff that is frankly unclean and unsanitary. There is constantly changing and conflicting information about whether virus spores can remain on things and for how long. I question if I should quarantine and disinfect newly found treasures. Do I curtail my impulses, set new finds aside to free them of germs for the benefit of my health and well being? As a sculptor, the availability of materials has always limited the size and scope of what I could bring to life. Sourcing recycled materials, getting filthy, being covered in grease or slime, dealing with cuts, bruises, scrapes and burns never diminished my quest to transform found objects and societies discards into works of art. Nor will this virus.

Where do you find inspiration?


As a child of the ’60s, I was an artist involved in social and philosophical issues that spoke to taking action and making positive change. Now I look at the world around me and through my Amazar Avians raise my voice to help spread concepts of love, peace, goodwill, and positive energy wherever they appear. I feel the need to respond to desperate cries for help from the earth itself, and I’m one of many who send meditative energies forth to bring about a more harmonious balance to the planet, to help end the pain and suffering threatening to destroy it. I have found that through my creations, my writings, and advocacy of concepts like Creative Re-Use, I am able to create experiences that cause people to pause, consider and view something outside their normal world. So I strive to create art forms that will motivate people to step outside their day-to-day patterns and look within, to seek and find beauty in life, marvel at the creative process, appreciate the wonders of the universe, look beyond self and find joy in life.

People who know me refer to me as a catalyst, a person able to help others look at things from multiple perspectives in ways that may spark them to action. I freely plant seeds of ideas and take satisfaction in motivating others to see possibilities or consequences.
My sculptures and the mission of my Amazar Avians has captured the attention of broad audiences, including people interested in sustainability, recycling, animal rights, the green movement, art collectors, the arts community and art curators. Daily, people are discovering my website www.amazaravians.world and conversations around how, why, and what I’m creating are taking wing. That coupled with my own inner vision for the future serves as the inspiration for each new sculpture and drives my creative spirit.

Do you have a favorite piece of art that someone else created?

I taught art in my twenties and even opened my own art school. I taught ceramics, woodworking, sculpture, metal arts and even taught a sewing class to middle school students. My favorite part of being a teacher was inspiring others to tap into their imaginations and bring forth something that was unique and special.

A glass artist/instructor/innovator I knew, Harvey Littleton, founder of the American Glass Movement, would tell his students “technique is cheap.” It’s a philosophy I share. While I might appreciate artwork that is technically proficient, my favorite works of art are creations that reflect the passion of the artist and brings forth their unique vision. Of those there are many.

For 35 years I owned Mindscape Gallery in the Chicago area where I had the honor to represent thousands of artists whose amazing creations met that standard. I became friends with and an advocate for the leading artists in American Craft Movement. To choose a singular favorite would be impossible.

Tell us about one of your pieces that you have been the most proud of?

In March of 2020, I searched my stash of found objects for components to use in creating and developing my next extraordinary Amazar Avian. I created an armature using the broken discarded body of a vintage wood duck decoy. Wanting a stately figure with a commanding presence I gathered together large used wood handled barbecue forks, old wooden thread spools, recycled wire, a pair of used wood serving trays, a belt buckle made for me 50 yrs. ago by an artist friend and polished boar tusks found while trekking through a northern Thailand native village.

Over the next 6 months it underwent numerous changes as I reshaped its form, designed mechanisms that would allow its head to turn, wings to flap and incorporated more than 1,000 feathers rendered from countless segments of deconstructed vintage leathers. In August it finally developed consciousness, communicating with me in flashes, stirring vibrations that gained in detail and attitude that would shape its identity and its tale. It took on the persona of Giakara-The Gatekeeper.

Giakara then called out from the depths of my creative spirit and asked that I surround it with a landscape overflowing with sacred crystal blooms. So its armature was expanded with segments of small wood bowls and a final vision began to take form. Cultivating leather Forever Gardens is a special form of landscape architecture. Once the seed of a vision has been planted it is slowly massaged to life. Selecting groups of small rainbow and quartz crystals from a treasure trove of gemstones gathered over the years they were bound to armatures of recycled wire rod and lengths thin stranded copper. Hundreds of stems, petals and leaves, rendered from leather remnants sprouted from my fingertips. Nurtured they grew and spread over the surface of the workbench until ready for harvest and transplanting. Each variety placed in its ideal eco-climate of light and shade, feeding off mystic energy flowing forth from geodes and sacred crystals.

At my September show I’ll proudly introduce my newest Amazar Avian, Giakara-The Gatekeeper and welcome people into the world of my Amazar Avians. You can go behind the scenes and watch Giakara and other Avians being brought to life at www.amazaravians.world.

Who are your biggest influences?


As a student of art history, in reflection of lives I’ve lived and the people that have populated my existence, my life in Evergreen these past nine years living on the mountainside surrounded by earth’s natural wonders, each element has significantly influenced and shaped the direction of my artwork. A few years ago a fellow artist paid me a wonderful compliment, referring to me as the Chihuly of Leather. I’ve known Dale Chihuly, the master glass artist, for many years. I represented his work in my gallery and had the pleasure of blowing glass with him one afternoon at his Pilchuck Glass Studio in Stanwood, Washington. I truly love his Glass Gardens, they are amazing installations. They have allowed me to envision creating a series of my own installations featuring my Amazar Avians and Forever Gardens accompanied by other artists committed to the concept of Creative Re-Use. I’m currently scheduling exhibition installations for 2021 and beyond.

See Ron's Work

Beyond The Mountain
3D Wall Landscape: 24”H x 16”W x 8”D
Recycled Vintage Leather, Crystals, Wood, Wire & Found Objects

Sharkara – The Farsighted
3D Sculpture: 18”H x 20”L x 16”W
Recycled Vintage Leather, Sharks Teeth, Crystals, Wood, Wire & Found Objects

ChaiKara – The Life Bringer
3D Sculpture: 28”H x 18”L x 14”W
Recycled Vintage Leather, Wild Boar Tusks, Wood, Wire & Found Objects

Giakara – The Gatekeeper
3D Sculpture: 28”H x 26”L x 24”W
Recycled Vintage Leather, Polished Wild Boar Tusks, Crystals, Gem Stones, Wood, Wire & Found Objects Center for the Arts Evergreen

31880 Rocky Village Drive

Evergreen, CO 80439

303-674-0056

Note* - This article has been reformatted from the original for ease in reading

Canyon Courier 5.29.19

Art, Elevated: Evergreen artist honors animals through recycled leather projects

By Deborah Swearingen

__________________

The story came to him as if in a dream.

Surrounded by tubs of color-coded leather samples in his studio, Ron Isaacson uses the recycled leather to create birds, landscapes and feathers.

As Ron Isaacson sat in his mountain studio, the mystical birds appeared before him, imploring him to share their message of hope and rejuvenation with the world.

And thus, the Amazar Avians were born. The intricate, colorful birds, made from leather and other found objects, are the latest in a lifelong series of artistic endeavors for Isaacson, an Evergreen-based leather artist.

The artist got his start in Chicago, where he co-owned Mindscape Gallery and primarily made large-scale metal sculptures. But when he hit the road in 2010 in his newly purchased 1983 Airstream motor coach, Isaacson decided to return to his leather roots. The material is easy to work with and much more portable.

A glimpse into his studio, snuggled underneath his home near Evergreen Mountain, offers a brief snapshot into Isaacson’s mind. Stacks of carefully organized leather in all hues and drawers of random objects fill the room while classic music reverberates off the walls. The colorful avians, many of which sit atop glimmering crystals, scatter the studio, some complete and some awaiting final touches.

Isaacson stays busy. He is working on a book called “Amazar Tales” that incorporates each bird and its unique story, and he hopes to offer the concept for other creators to use and embellish. In addition to the avians, Isaacson makes decorative hats, journals, ceremonial feathers and forever flowers and gardens — all constructed with repurposed leather — and it’s possible to catch him performing live music around town.

Further, since living in Evergreen, he’s participated in the Open Door Studios tour, and Isaacson said he has a large installation featuring the Amazar Avians in the works at Center for the Arts Evergreen.

Connection to the materials

Isaacson has a deep reverence for animals and hopes to honor them through his work. It’s something he learned from his grandfather, who worked as a furrier decades ago.

Although it may seem counterintuitive considering he works with leather, Isaacson breathes new life into discarded couches and clothing. He’s proud to say he can “skin a couch in, like, 15 minutes.”

“I’m really an animal rights person and feel that for whatever reason the animal gave its life, there’s no honor in that hide going in the dumpster just because it was worn, torn, faded or out of style when it was a couch or coat or something like that,” he said.

As a self-proclaimed scrounger, he’s constantly on the lookout for materials and frequents thrift stores and estate sales to search for objects that can be used in his artwork. He used to dye leather, but now he welcomes the challenge associated with working solely with the colors he can find.

“That way, each piece that I created would be a little more precious. Because like, you know, finding blues is impossible. And finding bright pinks and purples … is really hard,” Isaacson said. “By limiting my palette, I’m also putting boundaries within my own artwork of what I can end up doing.”

Learn more about the artist and his Amazar Avian Creations at www.amazaravians.world

_______________________________

Ron, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.

I’m often asked when was it that I knew I wanted to be an artist and what prompted me into incorporating recycled materials in the creation of my sculptures.

As a child growing up on the northwest side of Chicago, I had few friends but found refuge and enjoyment in creating stuff. In the age before digital technology, we relied on our imagination to challenge and change our reality. I was one of those kids that enjoyed taking things apart to see how they worked and, to the wonder of adults; I was one of those kids that reassembled things in strange creative ways.

Creating something from whatever I could find was my escape from solitude and growing up, I had a wealth of wonderful whatever to capture my imagination.

My grandfather on my father’s side was a junk dealer who salvaged parts from discarded plumbing fixtures then he rebuilt and resold them. Ultimately, he opened a large wholesale plumbing supply business on Chicago’s south side that my father became part owner of.

My mother’s father had been a tailor – creating high fashion fur and leather goods in New York and Chicago. He was also an inventor, cobbling together an amazing assortment of strange but useful things.

Though long retired from being a tailor, he retained a big old industrial sewing machine and boxes full of scraps, old fur, and leather in his workshop. Image how lucky I was as a creative soul. I had weekly access to explore and play in a junkyard full of odd and interesting stuff… and when on vacation to visit my grandfather in Florida, I had access to a trove of exotic leather & fur, a monster sewing machine to use and a wizard to mentor me.

Back then I never thought about it as recycling

As a young artist, it was second nature for me to use everyday found objects, assembling different components to make stuff. A good scissors, my Swiss Army Knife and a bottle of glue were my tools of choice. I carved bits of found wood, nuts & fruit. I actually carved and sold dried apple head sculptures at an art fair when I was 15.

Then, when my mother got called into to see the high school principal because I carved a landscape into my desktop during biology class, I think she understood that creating art was going to be part of my life.

My life took a turn in the mid-’60s when I found myself in Berkley, CA. during the summer of Love. – Does anyone remember the Summer of Love? There, I repurposed a small closet under a winding staircase in an old Victorian home into my sleeping quarters then took to the streets and discovered that I could make a few dollars by manipulating leather to create things like hippy headbands, fringed bags, and other new age stuff.

Coming back to Chicago, home to the stockyards and a lot of leather processing tanneries, I made a deal with two of the largest tanneries to come in and sweep their floors a few nights a week for free.

In exchange, I was allowed to keep the trash on the floor. That trash consisted of blemished leather remnants and discarded scrap leather. With a constant source of free leather, I set up shop at home making an array of leather goods and sold my creations to five of the major head shops in Old Town Chicago for a few years. That, in turn, helped finance my going to art school (I’ve made more Jimmy Hendrix white leather fringed vests than you can imagine).

While my initial area of concentration in art school was clay, at some point I decided I want to try my hand at carving stone so I again turned to recycled materials. I soon found that chunks of large cornerstones from derelict/demolished Chicago buildings were great materials to practice on.

From there, the urge to carve in blocks of marble was too great to ignore. Where do you find large pieces of free Marble?

Again, I turned to recycling. I got to know the caretakers at Chicago cemeteries who let me rummage back behind crematoriums and outbuildings through centuries of discarded broken tome stones and cart away segments of marble to practice my skills.

In the early ’70s, looking to create larger sculptures I learned to weld and forge iron, steel, brass, copper and stainless steel. But those materials were too expensive for an art students budget so I researched the world of industrial waste and became a certified dumpster diver. I actually made up some business cards that said “artist/dumpster diver.”

After getting caught knee-deep pulling discarded metals from industrial dumpsters by security personnel a few times too many, I arranged to meet with various managers at manufacturing plants and fabricators of architectural components to get permission to regularly scrounge behind the locked factory gates for metal cutoffs and waste materials.

By that time I understood the concept of recycling and found object art when describing my own artforms. My compulsion to create was fueled by the public’s interest and acceptance of my work.

My Art degree gave rise to a teaching certificate and then the opening of an art school with a small art gallery and my own art studio in Chicago. It happened to be located at a busy bus stop that brought in lots of lookers and buyers. The seed was planted to grow the gallery into a fulltime business. I found a larger location in Evanston, Illinois, and became the founder and owner of Mindscape Gallery which over the course of 30 years grew to a 10,000 sq. ft. facility gaining a national reputation as one of the top 10 Contemporary American Fine Craft Galleries in the United States, representing many nationally acclaimed artists. Many of artists I chose to represent also incorporated found/recycled/repurposed materials into their art. The challenge was often frustrating and exciting as I blazed the trail to expose the work of those artists to collectors.

Then, at the end of the ’90s came to a significant shift in the retail/gallery marketplace. With hundreds of artists relying on me for sales and dozens of employees, I had achieved fame and fortune as a gallery owner but it was time to rethink my role in the art world. I sold off part of the gallery, closed related retail endeavors, sold the building that housed my companies and went back to being an artist.

Then, in 2010, my personal life took a new turn. In response, I shut down my studio in the four-car lofted garage where I was creating large-scale metal sculptures out of recycled materials. I purchased a vintage 1983 Airstream motorcoach and left the Chicago area to travel the country in search of the meaning of life and to recapture joy by following my creative spirit. Chance brought me through Denver and the mountains where I found love and life near the city on 12 acres of forestland. I determined that the risk associated with working hot metals with an open flame to make sculptures holds too great a risk in a place where an errant spark can ignite a forest fire so I went back to another creative pursuit creating sculptures and artforms using recycled vintage leathers and found objects. (Visit www.amazaravians.world to see my current creations.)

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?

One of the key barriers I face as an artist using found objects and recycled leathers as the main media in the creation of my sculpture is that my work doesn’t fit standard categories in defining what I do. When approaching art galleries, exhibition curators, arts festivals and arts organizations or filling out standardized forms and applications my work doesn’t meet traditional categories and definitions.

I’m not a fiber artist doing weaving, wall hangings or making clothes. Though I have created sculptures in the past in a full range of traditional sculptural media like wood, clay, stone, and steel or bronze, my current work is of a completely different nature. I don’t by any means do traditional leatherwork, makings purses, belts, knife sheaths and such. The closest my work comes to current art categories is checking the box marked “Mixed media.” But even then people viewing digital or print images of my work are not able to fully grasp the textural and dimensional subtleties of my creations.

Someday perhaps those traditional art/sculpture categories will be expanded to include a found object/ recycled art category and arts organizations will regularly host exhibitions that feature art using recycled materials.

But I have been waiting for that day for a long time and yet as an artist, I continue to push the boundaries of the traditional use of materials. To that end, I have set for myself a major challenge. In the spring/summer of 2021, I will be having a major exhibition featuring the world of Amazar Avians and my Amazar Tales. I’ll be having flocks of hundreds of my avian sculptures winging around 3D landscapes of my Forever Gardens and groups of extraordinary Amazar Avians holding consul to offer wisdom and hope for the planet and its inhabitants. As co-curator for a tangent showcase of other artists using recycled materials, I hope to open discussions through workshops on Creative ReUse, Storytelling and the Power of Conscious Creation.

I’m sure there will be countless obstacles and challenges to make the exhibition and installation come together but as a creative spirit I choose to live by following the guiding business principle: “ One can always meet their minimum revised expectations.”

Please tell us about Amazar Avians/Unbound Leathers – what should we know?

I call my studio “Unbound leathers ® because I free my leathers from their former existence to create art forms that offer the materials an extended life. I honor and celebrate the raw organic nature of the repurposed leather. To achieve the imaging, the leather has been cut, skived, manipulated or fabricated to enhance the texture, grains shapes, colors and contrasts inherent in the hide, the original tanning/dyeing process & daily wear experienced during the leathers previous existence.

In all my marketing materials I make a point to let people know that I do not condone the taking of an animals’ life for commercial use. Yet, like many who believe in animal rights, I see no honor in the sacrifice made by discarding the hide when it is no longer desired for use in its current form. In recycling leather, I pay homage to that life.

People visiting my studio (by appointment) find I’ve hatched a unique flock of Amazar Avians; Crystal Beaks, Rainbow Beaks, Red Beak Guardians, Hummers, Wing Writers, Horned Owls and other Avians that are ready to take wing to bring Healing, Peace, Love, Joy and Good Fortune where ever they roam. I’ve crafted their flamboyant plumage from upcycled vintage leathers on armatures fabricated from found objects. And people discover Avian environments that incorporate scared crystals, ancient artifacts and “Forever Gardens.”

From the research I’ve done, I’m the only artist/sculptor in the country and perhaps beyond, that uses recycled materials and recycled leathers to make sculptures.

Surely, I’m the only artist/sculptor/wordsmith who has created a realm of Avians who have come to earth to help preserve the environment, raise awareness to issues facing the planet and its inhabitants and open a dialogue for hope,

I was recently asked why I choose birds to carry my message?

So, given the incentive to ponder the question I’m happy to share my answer.

I’ve always been fascinated by creatures that fly. Flying squirrels, bats, birds, butterflies, dragons and such. Though I tend to avoid whenever possible, flying bugs and winged critters that sting and bite.

As a child, I always marveled at bird’s ability to fly, to move at will across the country, to navigate unburdened gravity, to function summer and winter without adding layers of protective coverings, I would run around with my arms spread wide, fly a kite or throw handmade paper airplanes in the air but they could truly capture the wind and soar off to lands unknown.

Fascinating creatures birds. So many varieties exist on earth yet we still know so little about them and their relationship with humans throughout history except through myth and legend. Their beauty never fails to excite me, however, I was never driven to study them in depth or to become an avid birder. I was happy to simply accept them as one of those true wonders of nature, mysterious creatures whose evolution inspired awe.

For the past seven years, I’ve lived in what some have described as a rustic glass enclosed tree house that perches on the side of a mountain looking out over peaks and valleys of lush pine forests, aspen groves and wandering creeks – a place where seasons are marked by the arrival and departure of hummingbirds – a place where Blue Stellar Jays and dozens of other types of birds are my nearest neighbors. I watch them at our bird feeders as they flit in and out of sight and speak in a language I do not understand. I turn my eyes to the sky and glimpse giant winged shapes crossing the valley and I wonder where their journey will take them.

But my art is not truly about birds. Unbound to the realities of bird anatomy, physiology, and intellect, as an artist I am free to let my imagination soar and just draw my inspiration from these marvelous creatures. Doing so has allowed for the evolution of an entirely new species, the Amazar Avians. The basic shape, form and physical attributes of my sculptures do indeed have similarities to the birds of earth and it is that commonality that often attracts my audience. From there we can embark on a magical journey.

As a child, I can remember the excitement I felt when finding a fallen feather, I would treasure that connection with a creature that could soar the sky and conjure stories in my head about the adventures of the bird that left it behind. It was a gift from above. When I ask others if they ever found a feather, I’ll often see a twinkle in their eye, a slight smile and a sense of mystery.

So now, I create my feathered Avians for the world, bearing gifts for all and I offer special Ceremonial Feathers to bring a little magic to peoples lives.

I invite people to visit www.amazaravians.worldto discover more about my creations.

Is there a characteristic or quality that you feel is essential to success?

For me success is measured in nuances, small victories moving me forward in a positive direction.

The mission of the Amazar Avians Avians is to visit Earth to help those in need, bring healing energy, love, peace, goodwill, and positive energy wherever they appear. They have come in response to desperate cries for help from the earth itself and a surge in the frequency of meditative energies sent forth by those aspiring to bring about a more harmonious balance to the planet, and help end the pain and suffering threatening to destroy it. They have flown through the Amazar portal to offer assistance and hope.

If I can create an experience that causes people to pause, consider and view something outside their normal world if I can offer an expanded view of reality that enables a smile and stimulates a desire to touch and look closer at my work. That is a success.

If my creations can motivate someone to step outside their day-to-day patterns and look within, to seek and find beauty in life, marvel at the creative process, appreciate the wonders of the universe, to look beyond self and find joy in life, that is a success.

People who know me refer to me as a catalyst, a person able to help others look at things from multiple perspectives in ways that may spark them to action. I freely plant seeds of ideas and take satisfaction in motivating others to see possibilities or consequences.

The mission of the Amazar Avians manifested through my sculptures is capturing the attention of broad audiences, including people interested in sustainability, recycling, animal rights, the green movement, art collectors, the arts community and curators within the American Craft movement. Daily, people are discovering my website www.amazaravians.worldand conversations around how, why and what I’m creating are taking wing.

My 2021 exhibition/installation at the Center for Arts Evergreen is scheduled to be the first in a number of major events featuring Amazar Tales and as I adopt out more amazing Amazar Avians my flock of followers will continue to grow.

Each person motivated to read about my Amazar Avians, spend a few precious moments pondering the mission of the Amazar Avians or interested in gaining more insight into what motivates my creations lifts my spirit. Small victories like that encourage me to move forward and take the next step in the creative process.

Where do you see your industry going over the next 5-10 years? Any big shifts, changes, trends, etc?

While the concept of upcycling is only recently becoming part of any serious discussion dealing with recycling trash and unwanted materials, it’s something that some of your readers may have direct connection with.

I’m sure you’ve heard stories about grandmothers fashioning dresses from old curtains or flower sacks? Making rugs from old rags? Anyone quilt bedspreads from segments of old fabric?

And if you’ve turned leftover dinners into tomorrows lunch or compost it into garden fertilizer? …. That’s Recycling

If anyone saw the recent Cuba exhibit at the Denver museum and loves the old cars from the 50th they have been keep running? …That’s Upcycling

The concept of Creative ReUse holds that that by converting refuse into artwork, the discarded trash can acquire a new aesthetic. The resulting artwork can also take on moral and conceptual dimensions.

Artists have always been incorporating and adapting found objects to create their art. Carving in wood, stone, clay, drawing with carbon based materials, using natural dyes and stains to bring forth their artistic vision are just a few examples. Yet, as those materials and mediums have became more refined, they have also become more expensive. The alternative …for the creative spirit on a budget, the idea of adapting discarded manufactured materials into components to make art was inevitable. Now it’s happening globally out of necessity in countries torn apart by war and famine.

Currently the art world is leaping to the forefront of a movement that intertwines aspects of invention, innovation and imagination with the need for recycling manufactured materials.

This in turn has also opened the door to new opportunities in the area of arts education by encouraging the creation of unique and original artforms by recycling/upcycling/repurposing discarded objects.

The general public is only now learning that the concept of Creative Re-use introduced across environmental and educational sectors through the arts can actually encourage an insightful aspect of sustainable thinking and in offering extended life to materials that might otherwise end up in landfills.

Over the next 5 years, using my Amazar Avians to bring attention to and encourage those efforts I people will consider the role they might be able to play in the following areas to help Denver and surrounding communities explore, develop or promote the concept of Creative Re-Use.

• Upcycling – Existing recycling and sustainability programs should be encouraged to add a category of “Upcycling” in order to redistribute a variety of discarded materials for use as possible art components to artists, crafters, educators and others.

• Reimagining Art – Arts festivals and arts organizations should be encouraged to expand traditional art/sculpture categories to include a found object/ recycled art category and host exhibitions that feature art using recycled materials.

• Environmental Education and the Arts – Schools and communities should develop activities and programs that encourage artistic innovation using upcycled materials and creative reuse.

• Creative Materials Exchange – Develop a way to access used, reclaimed, salvaged and donated art materials as free, low cost or bartered supplies for artists

Pricing:

• Artforms range in price from $18. to $1800.00 based on: Complexity of design, size of sculptures, scarcity of colors available in vintage recyclable leathers.

• Ceremonial Feathers $18 – 36

• Forever Flowers and Forever Gardens $36 – 98

• Avian Flyers $46 – 96

• Nesting Avians $58 -126

• Extraordinary Avians $350 -1800.

Contact Info:

• Website:www.amazaravians.world

• Phone:303-957-7369

• Email:ronisaacson@me.com

As an artist/sculptor/author, I have brought to life a series Amazar Avians with a mission: to bring attention to ecological and social issues facing the planet and provide an opportunity to introduce the concept of Creative Re-use across environmental and educational sectors encouraging insightful sustainable thinking on ways to offer extended life to materials that might otherwise end up in landfills.

The Art of Conservation exhibition at 40 West Arts Galley from October 2 -24th fit well with that mission.

Q & A 1/1/22 Create Whimsy interview

• How did you find yourself on an artist’s path?

Most children are born into the world with inquisitive minds that drive them to explore and challenge everything they are experiencing. They encounter worlds of wonder full of strange creatures, new sounds that buzz in the air, textures, shapes and forms to touch and absorb, colors that delight the eye and smells to temp the senses. I was one of the fortunate ones, growing up in the 50’s without the distractions that face children today and with parents who did not squash that natural curiosity and damped my creative spirit.

My grandfather on my mother’s side was a tailor who designed and stitched together wondrous coats of fur, leather and textural fabrics. My grandmother was a poet, a writer of tales, a woman who found wonder in exploring museums and shared what she discovered with my older sister and I. My father’s father started as a junk dealer, pulling a horse cart through the streets. Together with father they owned a plumbing supply yard on Chicago’s south side. Immigrants turned entrepreneurs was my family’s legacy.

I was a child who colored outside the lines, explored environments of my own making. I chose to spend my time building strange objects from cast offs in the junkyard rather than playing sports. I can remember a time back in high school I was caught craving designs in my wood desk during biology class. I was sent to the Principles office. My mom was called into school, when we went up to the classroom to see the damage I caused, my mom’s comment, …”I guess you’re going to be an artist when you grow up!”

• How have you evolved as an artist?

Blessed or cursed with being both right and left brain oriented, I see life through a different lens than most. I see possibilities and solutions that often escape others. Throughout my career I’ve been described as a catalyst, a person unafraid to put forth a vision or gather together components to bring an idea to life.

After getting a degree as an Arts Educator, I taught art at a Jr. High school for a short time. Not content with teaching standardized curriculum I opened up my own art school teaching ceramic, drawing, photography and metal working to adults. Within a year “Artisan-A Center for Discovery in the Arts”, added additional teachers so I could spend time in the studio creating my own sculptural works and participate in art fairs throughout the Midwest.

I had been showing my sculptures at art festivals since I was fifteen winning various awards along the way. At sixteen I got a job with a local department store creating captivating displays of merchandise. I came to grasp the value of integrating creativity, storytelling and marketing in a successful retail environment. While in college I held a part time job as the Assistant Creative Display Director for a large chain of regional department stores.

My storefront art school had good window exposure with a bus stop out front. The works of art teachers, fellow artists and students randomly adorned the walls and shelves. Knowing how to attract audiences to look through a store window, I decided to create a gallery like environment that would pull people in and generate sales. Months passed and soon my lease was coming up for renewal so I had some choices to make. Was I an art teacher or a working artist? Should I continue the art school or close it and open a gallery?

Many artists have a dream to create a small gallery to showcase their pieces and pay the rent, enabling them to have a studio in the back room or basement to create their pieces. A few months later, after a lot of research and planning, I opened “Mindscape Gallery” in a 1,000 sq. storefront in Evanston, Illinois.

During that first year the gallery was successful in building a following. I showcased the works of fellow artists in the front and had my sculpture studio in the back. As the months passed my studio time grew shorter and the gallery space grew larger. The gallery was becoming my art form, a living breathing sculpture which, during it’s 30 year existence, grew into two 10,000 sq. ft. galleries with a staff of 26, representing thousands of cutting edge artists in contemporary American studio art glass, textiles, jewelry, clay, wood, sculpture and mixed media. I nurtured artists, educated and cultivated groups of collectors and developed a corporate art division selling major works to corporate collections and art for public spaces. My efforts generated millions of dollars in sales for artists to keep their studios thriving.

During the 1970’s, 80’s and early 90’s, Mindscape was recognized as one of the top10 Contemporary American Fine Craft Galleries in the United States. As a gallery owner, I became a sought after Arts Marketing Consultant, sitting on the boards of some of the leading arts publications and arts organizations in the country. I was honored to be part of an Arts & Economic Development team that included the Director of the Smithsonian’s Renwick Gallery, The Director of Arts and Crafts division of the Department of Indian Affairs in DC and other leaders in the American Fine Craft Movement. For years we consulted nationally with organizations building sustainable arts communities and programing.

In the late 90’s changes in the economy, in the gallery world and in the interest and demand for affordable well-designed, mass-produced products and home furnishings, created a major shift in consumer spending. As a gallery owner, the weight of thousands of artists depending on me to keep their studio doors open became too heavy a burden.

As a creative entrepreneur, once again I was at a crossroads and looked deeply into what stirred my passion and goals as an artist. I chose to sell off or close segments of the gallery, to purposely bring closure to what I had created and open a small sculpture studio in my garage to do my own work.

• How has your environment influenced your creativity?

In 2002 I built my dream studio. A large 4-car garage/loft sculpture studio attached to my home in the Northern suburbs of Chicago. I designed it specifically to facilitate welding, forging and fabricating small and monumental sculptures from found objects and recycled steel. I had a fenced in junkyard of components for future use and a sculpture garden to display my creations. Many happy hours were spent there following my passion.

But that dream came to an end along with my relationship of 35 years. A pending divorce motivated in-depth reflection of what defined me as a human being and an artist. Who was I? What brought me joy? How did I wish others to perceive me? How would I channel my creative spirit? All major questions that demanded investigation before I could mentally move forward with my life.

I decided to embark on a Grand Adventure, giving away and selling off my studio fixtures and supplies. I cashed in my 401K, buying an old 1983 Airstream Motor Coach, keeping only what I could carry with me and took to the road to discover answers to so many questions that plagued my days and nights.

There was no way to carry welding equipment, anvils and mounds of scrap metal on my journey, but buried on a shelf in that garage loft was a box I hadn’t opened for 30+ yrs. that would change the direction of my art.

I mentioned earlier that my grandfather had been a tailor of fine leather apparel. When I was a young boy, I visited his home in Florida and spotted dust covered boxes under a tarp covering an old industrial sewing machine in the corner of his garage workshop. Inside were wrapped bundles of fur and leather. There were segments of Cheetah hide, fox, bear, deer and elk and a bag of needles, blades, punches and threads. He took them out, talking to me about the spirit of the animal that remained in the leather and shared his belief in honoring the animal who gave it’s life so that we might use the leather to clothe us and keep us warm. He gifted me those treasures, taught me to sew on that machine, to punch, pull and stitch leathers into all sorts of marvelous things.

That box held those treasures and the remnants of other creative ventures I’ve had as an artist working with leather.

Allow me to share a little backstory with you. In the sixties during the summer of love, I found myself living in a closet under a big winding staircase of a stately old Victorian house in Berkley CA. On the streets one could find artists selling their wares and a few leather workers making leather headbands, chokers, bracelets and fringed bags. I joined their ranks that summer and then returned to Chicago for college. Ever the dumpster diver, I discovered a number of leather tanneries not far from the Chicago stockyards. They processed leather for shoe factories and garment manufacturers, rejecting hides with uneven dyes, brands and blemishes. I made a deal to sweep the floors at some of those tanneries at night in exchange for the scrap leather I found on the floor. Repurposing those scraps, I created my own line of headbands, fringed leather vests and bags. Selling my creations to numerous “Head Shops” in Old Town Chicago, I used the profits from that venture to help pay my college tuition.

Back to that box… Looking at its contents sparked creative possibilities for my Grand Adventure. I could create one of a kind leather journals, landscapes and other items in my mobile studio, recycling leather clothing found at garage sales or resale stores and sell my creations to gift shops or at fairs as I traveled across the country.

The better part of year and over 4,000 miles went by wandering the Midwest and Eastern US in my Airstream motorcoach, pulling a trailer that held my motorcycle and art studio as I pondered the depth of questions that would change my life. I turned west planning a brief stop in the foothills above Denver Colorado to visit some cousins and then continue on to California.

I’ve referred to myself as an artist, a sculptor, an entrepreneur and creative spirit. I’m also a writer, author and musician. In the summer of 2011, I found myself in Evergreen Colorado, a small mountain town that was host to an active and welcoming creative community. One rainy day I found myself sitting on a mountainside playing my harmonica overlooking Evergreen Lake, surrounded by remnants of an ancient forest. The July monsoon rains gathered and quickly moved on. Contemplating the next step on my Grand Adventure my inner voice whispered … I could be on the road for another year searching to build a new life in a place just like this. So I found a spot to park the Airstream, rented a tiny cave-like studio apartment in the stone walled basement of a vintage home overlooking the town. There was a big stone fireplace next to a small bathroom and just enough space for a chair, bed and a workbench for my leather studio.

My Grand Adventure had led me to the depths of despair and a heightened sense of self-awareness that finally brought focus and understanding to what was important in my life. I soon began to make friends within the creative community and a series of events connected me with an amazing woman, a soul mate who had lived in the mountains since the mid 80’s. and whom I’m honored to share my life with.

I was welcomed into her home, a simple structure I refer to as a tree house built on the side of a mountain, surrounded by hundreds of acres of open space and primal forest. Walls of large windows on every level welcome the sun and changes of seasons. Regular visits by fox, deer, elk and an occasional bear pass by the window in front of my lower level studio workbench and the sky is filled with birds of very species, hawks, eagles and seasonal flocks of hummingbirds. The freedom I’ve found in this mountain retreat, with a space to fabricate and develop my leather work allowed me to develop more sculptural works and opened a portal for my creative spirit to thrive, giving birth to a ongoing series of Amazar Avians.

• Why sculpture? How does that medium best express what you want to communicate through your art?

As a kid I wanted to learn magic. I practiced making objects appear and disappear but I wasn’t very good at it.

Visually I was one of those kids who loved to build things, actively participating in forming something from a pile of random components. Seeing something evolve from concept to completion is a process that thrills me. The interplay of light and shadow, positive and negative space, the flow of forms, contrasts of textures that surround us in nature and the built environment fascinates me. In high school I took 4 years of drafting thinking I could have a career as an architect. I took sculpture classes at the Art Institute of Chicago, pottery classes at local community centers. I’ve carved and chiseled wood, stone and marble and a multitude of odd materials. I’ve thrown pots and worked clay, blown, pulled, shaped and manipulated hot and cold glass, cut, stitched, dyed, stretched and stuffed a wide range of textiles and fabrics. I’ve welded, fused, cut and assembled every type of metal. Spent hours in front of a blacksmith forge attuning my heartbeat to the rhythms of my hammer pounding, bending and shaping hot steel. I’ve created intricate jewelry and fabricated monumental outdoor sculptures.

I’ve discovered I prefer an additive rather than subtractive sculptural process, allowing me to remove and add new elements as I develop a concept and bring an idea to life. I get lost in the process of creation as I witness a sculpture unfold on my workbench as if by magic.

• Are there recurring themes in your work? What is it about a subject that inspires you to continue exploring it?

I consider myself an EcoArtist, one who practices the concept of Creative Re-Use.

As an arts activist and catalyst for change, I join with other creative thinkers that see beyond what is and imagine what could be. I look to inspire others to rethink current ways of living and work towards sustainability and renewal. It is important that society embraces the concept of a circular economy, finding ways of extending the life of manufactured items and avoid producing products and packaging that might end up in landfills.

To help spread that message my Amazar Avians have been brought to life to embody those concepts and inspire the making and telling of tales that offer hope about a different way of living. Created from deconstructed recycled vintage leathers, this series of Eco-sculptures has been receiving acclaim from local, national and international arts communities. It’s given me the opportunity to reach the public through exhibitions/installations, seminars, stories and workshops promoting the concept of Creative ReUse.

• How did your Amazar Avians come to be and how do you decide what to make next?

Before I set out on my Grand Adventure, my last sculptural endeavor involved a series of large outdoor floral gardens fabricated, welded and fused from a variety of metal found objects. Making the transition to working with recycled leather was a significant change. Not to be constrained by typical definitions of Leather Art, I named my studio “Unbound Leathers”. As a sculptor creating unique journals, I layered contrasting textures, organic shapes and landscapes on leather sleeves forming removable jackets that fit around standard size sketchbooks and lined journals. Enviably my creations became increasingly more three-dimensional as I began fabricating and fashioning floral images on the journal covers.

I’ve created flowers from various materials over the years, fabricating, bending and shaping floral components. Taking a scissors to leather allowed for more delicate, intricate, free flowing and curvilinear cuts in fashioning exotic petals, sepals, peduncles, leafs and stems in contrasting textures and colors. I would create hundred of floral components at a time, working till my hands cramped from using my scissors.

One day I looked down at my workbench and noticed a few petals I made had a very feathery look and feel.

I’ve collected feathers since I was a boy. Finding a feather on the ground was like a special gift from a magical creature. Those rare moments of spotting a feather twisting and turning as it floated down from the sky was wondrous. I’ve long admired the creative use of feathers in tribal art and in ancient rituals. Days of experimentation in creating feathers lead to a new body of work. The image of a singular feather floating free or waiting to be found held special meaning to me and dovetailed well with my own journey of discovery. A lone feather would adorn a new series of “Letting Go” Journals and float down from above on a series of leather landscapes.

As a sculptor I’ve fashioned many creatures and critters. To populate my leather landscapes I had created an array of patchwork leather butterflies and dragonflies, but not birds. So I began to research the anatomy of birds and how other sculptors portrayed them. I concluded that I had no interest in recreating anatomically correct birds, but instead wished to create a new species of winged creatures embodying the essence of bird’s movement, grace, power and beauty.

Like many artists who utilize salvaged and recycled materials in the creation of their sculptures, I am on a constant search for hard-to-find components. Stockpiling them so they're available when needed to bring forth a desired element of form and expression. Components to fashion my Avian’s body parts were needed so I began a never-ending quest for beaks, legs, and eyes.

It was summer and flocks of Hummingbirds surrounded our mountain home. At a neighborhood garage sale, I discovered a fist full of assorted knitting needles, their tapered forms called out to me as perfect for a flock of Long Beak Hummers. A red glass chill pepper necklace found at an estate sale became curved beaks for a family of owls. At another estate sale a box of calligraphy nibs and old metal drafting pens would become beaks for a flock of what I would later call Amazar Avian Wing Writers. My imagination soared.

Other components came easier to find. Fondue and barbecue forks make great bird legs, and the tines can be bent into claws to grab onto fabricated tree branches or stabilize Avians in a variety of positions. Recycled salvaged wood bowls, thread bobbins, wine corks, bits of wire, handles of odd tools and other finds began to occupy bins around my studio, waiting to be plucked for use as armatures for body parts, wings and heads.

I began sorting my trove of leathers by color or texture and how the leather would be cut, curled or fashioned into different sizes and shapes of feathers. Making journals was no longer a priority. Birds soared through my imagination. Small Avians a few inches long flew above my workbench. Large ones exceeding two feet tall with wingspans a yard wide found perch throughout our house.

I’ve often been referred to simply as an artist dumpster diver who transformed junk into artwork. To support my efforts I generally created work with an eye toward sales. In my twenties I did create a series of metal sculptures titled “Why Me?” that included small bronze figures with an arm raised high in a fist or seated with head in hands contemplating what was happening in my life. I marched and rallied for causes I believed in, created banners for peace and championed the rights of others, but my life as a social activist rarely crossed over into the imagery of the sculptures I created.

Confortable in my mountain home I began to look at what I wished to achieve as an artist and the legacy of the work I was creating. I was in my sixties and the concepts of sustainability, recycling and renewal were active topics for discussion in addressing the pending crisis of Global Warming. Concurrently, the art world had grown more accepting of the type of sculptures I was making. Terms like Eco Art and Creative Re-Use redefined and brought a new level of acceptance to the creations of found object artists in the eyes of the public.

As my Avians gained attention from attentive audiences interested in learning about my creative process, I began to actively promote the concept of Creative Re-Use. I co-curated and participated in gallery exhibitions featuring other artists using recycled materials and I began conducting talks and leading seminars on the topic. As my message gained a following, I realized I had the opportunity to merge my passions as an activist, artist, writer and storyteller.

• Tell us more about Amazar Tales?

Legend has it, through a portal in the multiverse is a realm where an extraordinary species of Avians have existed for eons, discreetly visiting earth to help those in need by bringing hope, peace, goodwill and positive energy wherever they appear.

In recent years an Amazar portal appeared in a mountain art studio above Denver, compelling the artist to bring form to the Amazar Avians: the healers, guardians, sages and the wise, bright with leathery plumage and help them in their mission to bring about a more harmonious balance to the planet and its inhabitants.

Have you seen them yet?

Flocks of Amazar Avians have chosen to make themselves known in response to desperate cries for help from the earth itself and a surge in the frequency of meditative energies sent forth by those working to bring about a more harmonious balance to the planet ending the pain and suffering threatening to destroy it.

Their legend unfolds to those who choose to listen and learn.

Encouraged by fans and collectors of my Amazar Avian sculptures, Forever Gardens and leather landscapes to share my stories, poems and profiles of exceptional Avians from Amazar I created Amazar Tales, a developing a series of illustrated stories, books and video blogs.

I’ve always been fascinated with tales of adventure and stories involving anthropomorphic animals, animals capable of communicating emotions, wants and desires and animals helping and befriending humanity. I read them for my own enjoyment and created stories to tell my daughter as she grew up. They helped shape how she related to others and the world around her. Developing Amazar Tales was my opportunity to create a series of stories with a message I could share with a wider audience.

I pondered the idea and outlined the concept with a few close friends, then stepped away from my studio workbench for a few weeks and sat at my computer to create a complex storyboard where the realm of Amazar was conceived. It told of flocks of unique, exceptional Amazar Avians with special attributes who would become central characters on an important mission. I decided that each of my new Amazar Avian sculptures would play a part in a series of Amazar Tales, stories crafted to bring attention to the waste and destruction facing our planet; stories of people feeling lost and alone and stories that offered hope for better tomorrows.

I am a believer in the powers of natural healing, of elemental energies that flow through the multiverse, and that each of us has the ability to manifest our destiny. My home with Cherie, a holistic practitioner and healer, is filled with crystals, singing bowls and earth’s natural wonders. With that mindset, desiring to create a series of Amazar Avians with unique powers and attributes, I embarked on a quest.

In a miners tent at a gem & minerals show in Denver, I found assorted long crystal points discovered in a crystal cavern in Brazil which could become Amazar Avian beaks that held or projected healing vibrations. And I found sacred crystals and rare stones discovered by miners that could populate my Forever Gardens. Then a tray of antique sharks teeth caught my eye and I immediately envisioned them on the face of cunning sharp beaked winged warriors,

As we traveled the world exploring other cultures, in a small antique/ second hand shop on a side street in a rural village, in the mountains outside Bogotá Columbia, a string of turquoise blue tapered stones hanging on the wall was found begging to give voice to stately Blue Beak Avians. On a journey to a remote native village in Northern Thailand following a life long passion to explore and collect textiles of ancient cultures, a roadside table held a tray containing the teeth and tusks of wild boar that had been destroying fields of crops. I immediately pictured them as beaks of powerful Amazar Avian creations offering aid to protect our planet.

I began assigning different attributes or powers to each type of beak, ascribing aspects of wisdom, hope, healing, compassion etc. that further defined the creations they adorned. As I began each new creation, my choice of a beak would help determine the role new Avian characters would play in the developing saga of Amazar Tales.

There are now dozens of different Amazar Avian species and a flock of amazing Amazar Avians with special powers that populate my Amazar Tales. You can read more about them at www.amazaravians.world.

• When it comes to creating, are you more of a planner or an improviser?

As I mentioned earlier, as a sculptor I’m a hunter gather on a never-ending quest searching for components for possible new creations.

When beginning a new piece, I’ll scan my stash of leathers and found objects with a vague idea of what I wish to bring to life. Spontaneity then guides my hand as I pluck components from their bins and hiding places.

There are many layers to each Amazar Avian. Most go unseen in the final form. During the hatching (the creation of an armature) segments of found object are manipulated into forms that will suggest the size, shape and scale of the sculpture. As feathers are added, contrasts in texture, color, the interaction of positive/negative space, the tilt of the Avian’s head, the positioning and length of wings and tails demand frequent modification and revision during the creative progress.

The head and eyes are generally the last component I complete. Choice of stones for eyes, their size, shape and color, their positioning and how they attract and catch the gaze of the audience is important. The flare of feathers at the crown, the flurry of feathers that suggest ears, the drape of feathers around the neck are each given serious thought as I develop a dialogue between the Avians and people who would approach them to discover more.

Visit my website to take a peek behind the scenes and see images showing the evolution, the birthing of an Amazar Avian.

• Do you have a dedicated space for creating? If so, what does it look like?

Living on the side of a mountain, the lower level/basement of our home serves as my studio and in the entry to our upper level main living space where many of my leather Forever Garden Landscapes adorn the walls. As I mentioned earlier, I’m blessed with large windows in front of my chest-high workbench that face SE overlooking the forest below. Groups of my leather flowers awaiting placement in my Forever Gardens are suspended upside down around window frames in front of me as if they were real flowers in the process of drying.

Clusters of floor to ceiling wire-shelving units found at various garage sales line most of the walls, holding trays and bins of leather sorted by color and texture. Another group of shelves serve to display finished sculptures.

In the center of my studio, a 4’ x 4’ booth fashioned from other segments of shelving components, hung with recycled black fabric and framed by assorted spotlights stand ready for photographing and documenting the evolution of each creation.

Visitors are welcome to come experience my studio by appointment.

• What are the indispensable tools and materials in your studio? Have you taken something designed for another use and repurposed it for your studio?

My studio holds hundreds of bins and trays with worn/torn deconstructed leather from recycled vintage garments and faded, damaged leathers I’ve skinned from old discarded couches.

Ages ago using cheap scissors, I cut goat skin chamois to make leather costumes for a Renaissance Festival by hot gluing the seams. Those costumes are still intact.

Fast forward 50 years, now an industrial high heat hot glue gun using glue sticks that melt at 410* F (The type used for gluing car parts together) along with different size heavy duty titanium nonstick scissors are my main tools for cutting, forming and fusing together components of my sculptures.

Other indispensable tools and materials include; an assortment of exacto knives and razor blades, a variety of heavy-duty sewing needles, assorted threads, hole punches, and bundles of different recycled wires. Wood burning tools and Pyrography Pens with different tips are often used to heat, curl, shape and embellish designs on the leather.

• Do you use a sketchbook or journal? How does that help your work develop?

I periodically journal about creative concepts or reflect on recent completed works. Sometimes I’ll lay awake in the night pondering a design solution or the next step in the evolution of a sculpture. I’ll often write or sketch those thoughts on a pad near my bedside to trigger my memory in the morning,

• Do you think that creativity comes naturally to people, or do you think creativity is a skill that people can learn?

I think we are born with an inquisitive nature driving us to explore the unknown. It stimulates creativity, innovation and imagination. Unfortunately those inherent skills are discouraged as societies promote concepts encouraging conformity and standardization of all we see and do.

In addition, I believe that cultivating an appreciative audience that honors the creative spirit is just as important as motivating creativity in others.

As a gallery owner and curator I’ve led seminars on ”How an Artist Looks at the World “ to help others reawaken or nurture art appreciation. I’ve found encouraging people to let go of preconceived notions of art and allowing their imagination to soar builds a greater understanding of the artistic process.

In recent years as an Eco-Art activist, I’ve given presentations on the concept of “Creative Re-Use”. I’m encouraged that art centers and museum are now featuring public art incorporating recycled materials and are even offering workshops that challenge people to create objects and art from materials that would otherwise end up in landfills.

• Tell us about your website. What do you hope people will gain by visiting?

One of my goals is to create a series of temporary interactive gallery installations that showcase flocks of Amazar Avians perched in and soaring above pathways meandering through elaborate Forever Gardens. Those installations, accompanying workshops and seminars are being designed to also serve as platforms for examining preconceived notions on sustainability and recycling, expanding discussions on those topics to involve the creative community.

My website, www.amazaravians.world is currently designed to provide an introduction to the process of hatching hundreds of exceptional Avians and transforming the discarded byproducts of a consumer driven society into the thousands of components that will populate those installations.

Each visit to my website provides opportunities to witness the evolution of the creative process as various Amazar Tales unfold, gifting readers and Amazar Avian Ambassadors with mystic tales of wonder that offer hope for better tomorrows. For more information contact me at ronisaacson@me.com

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