Ron began his career in painting, and had his first one person show in his hometown of Paducah, KY at age eleven. After receiving his MFA from the Univ. of Illinois, Urbana he moved to Miami, Florida where he worked for the next fifteen years. It was there that he honed a keen use of color. Ron works with variety of materials but it is the activity of drawing that continues to play an important part in Ron’s sculpture from the large-scale adobe works to drawings in cast metal and his use of lighting. Ron also taught at the Univ.of North Carolina, Chapel Hill before coming to Washington Univ. Where he is a professor of sculpture. Ron has worked and lectured in Japan and Demark as well as numerous sites around the U.S. He received a Guggenheim award for sculpture, a National endowment for the arts award a Pollack/Kransner award. His works can be seen in several major collections around the world including The Smithsonian’s Renwick Gallery in Washington DC.

Ron is also an active curator having put together more than twelve exhibitions.

One of his main interests is how art can be woven into the fabric of every day life. This focus has led him to the design and construction of four homes. This summer he completed the design of a fifth house and has been commissioned to begin design another near Asheville, NC. He currently lives in one of his own designs. It is his desire to see art as part of our living environment that has compelled him to completed over fifty public art projects around the United States, Denmark and France. As a faculty in the Sculpture area he leads The Center for Public Practice were students are involved in the study and practice of creative ways that art can be manifest in the public realm. He has just completed a three -year project with the combined students of biology and art at South Western Illinois College, Bellville, IL a video of this project can be seen on U-Tube via a link from The Schmidt Art Center.

Currently he is working on a commission from The United Arts Council of Greater Greensboro, NC. This project focuses on a 200-year history of transportation.