About

RON WILLARD ROLLINS was born in a log house outside Lake Erie Marshlands and a quarter-mile from the Lakeshore Electric Streetcar which operated until 1941 and was the family transportation.

He is one of eight sons of a Moraavian lay minister who worked with the kilns in Woodville, Ohio, the limestone center of the world. The Erie, Seneca, Ottawa, Chippewa, Wyandot (Hurons) Indians were schoolmates. After Cub Scouts, the Boy Scouts offered an opportunity to engage in Indian Folklore and North American Indian dance interpretation. He later was an Explorer Scout and attended the National Jamboree in Philmont, New Mexico, where he learned and performed the Hopi Snake Dance and Apache Devil Dances.

Ron worked for Ohio Outdoor Advertising until 1952 when he was inducted into the military. After serving four years in the Marine Corps, he returned to the University of Toledo. He received art instruction at the Toledo Museum of Art, and took private lessons from the Madonna Heschel School of Art in Port Clinton. Ron holds a BA in Education from Wayland Baptist University, Plainview, Texas, and a  Master’s Degree in both Religion, and Counseling Psychology.

The artist made a  serious commitment to painting in 1984, and he paints almost daily. Native Americans’ from coast to coast intrigue him, and phases of their long-lasting culture are recurrent themes in his work. He is proficient in oil, acrylic, watercolor, slate carving and clay.