Ron Fleming

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Example of Fleming's featured foliage motifs. Redwood burl wood, lathe turned, hand carved, 2011, Height 11 inches Diameter 17 inches

Ron Fleming (20 September 1937 – 6 December 2021) also known as Ronald Franklin Fleming was an American woodturning artist whose pieces featured foliage motifs. His works are in the permanent collections of American museums such as the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Renwick Gallery and the White House Permanent Collection of American Craft.

Early career

Before undertaking the art of woodturning, Fleming was an Art director in the Commercial art business. Over the years he received more than a dozen industry awards from the American Advertising Federation Tulsa (Tulsa Ad Club). He specialized in Airbrush, Graphic arts, and Technical illustration included the United States Air Force, United States Navy, United States Marines, Nasa, General Dynamics, Rheem Manufacturing Company, Amtrak, R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, Toshiba, American Express, Kodak, Phillips Petroleum Company, Coors Brewing Company, Reebok, Red Lobster, Colgate (toothpaste), Zebco, Oral Roberts Evangelistic Association, and many more. These companies sometimes needed to advertise their products when they were still in the design phases. Fleming used his engineering, blue print reading, technical illustration, and photography experience to procure the media for many of his customers.

To support some of his clients in other ways Fleming opened a plastics reproduction plant he named House of Heirlooms so he could reproduce products cast from polyurethane. The casting process was able to pick up fine details from the item being preproduced. This process allows you to see the woodgrain on a finished part or pores in the skin of hands that were cast. Fleming's first big client was Oral Roberts Evangelistic Association. Fleming produced a small plaque he sculpture to look like dead sea parchment paper with the ORU Prayer tower and a prayer beside it that stuck out and an ink roller was used to make the words look like type set. Fleming's company produced over 300,000 of them for Oral Roberts and created and manufactured other items for other companies like Zebco, Decorama Inc, Home Interiors and Gifts, and many others. New products were added by request and Fleming would hand carve them out of wood, clay, and other medias or sometimes use wood carvings by other artists or even use wood carvings he purchased in antique stores. The company expanded and it became difficult running the graphic arts business and trying to spend more of his time on woodturning so he sold House of Heirlooms in the early 80's and the buyer relocated the operation to Dallas Texas under another name.

Hearthstone Studios

1937 Tulsa Oklahoma Incinerator repurposed into Hearthstone Studios

Hearthstone Studios Entrance into Atrium

Fleming is well known nationally for converting the Tulsa Incinerator built in 1939 (Declared a Historical Landmark and on the National Registry) into a home, art studio, and gallery "Hearthstone Studios". Some publications have noted it is an artwork in itself, with huge hand carved front and rear doors made of walnut, designed and built by Fleming to match the original arches on the side of the building. As you enter into the living area or Atrium (architecture) the first thing you see is a large bricked in raised bed indoor garden with waterfall, koi pond, flowers, and trees. You look around and see artwork displayed everywhere. When exiting the rear doors you enter a glass wood frame Solarium overlooking the lower park like acreage and creek. The front incinerator stack is used as a fireplace on the main and lower floors. The rear incinerator stack has a spiral staircase built and designed by Fleming that goes down to the lower floor or up to the star gazing observatory. The 4,500-square-foot layout includes the front atrium living space, round walled dining room, kitchen, and lofted master suite and art studio. The lower level has one bedroom, a bathroom, a game room with beamed ceiling and an office with arched windows. The garage, once the site of the soot, is a large three car sized woodshop with arched windows on the front bay and arched garage doors on the other two. One of the inferno hatches was left in place to honor the National Registry and Historical Land mark. Major public and private tours have been provided by The City of Tulsa or many other organizations so people visiting from anywhere in the world could tour it.

Career

Fleming began selling his woodturning work in 1986, gaining the attention of art collectors and devoted increasing time to his work. A Founding Member of the American Association of Woodturners (AAW) with more than 365 chapters worldwide and was also a Founding Member and Trustee of The Center for Art in Wood in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he was an active participant in the history and growth of both. His earlier experience in graphic design was reflected in his wood turned and carved vessels. Fleming's works have been translated into the media of sculptural crystal and bronze castings. He collaborated with other artist in his field to create artworks that combined both artists techniques. Artist like Bob Hawks, Ron Kent, Linda Stilley, Guy Timmons & Stan Townsend, and many others. The article "Attractive Opposites" written by Stephen Henkin Art Editor, World & I Magazine a publication, compares strengths and similarities of Ron Fleming and Binh Pho whom both had served AAW.

Permanent collections

White House Red Room Washington D.C. New Beginnings by Ron Fleming

Smithsonian American Art Museum (Washington, D. C.), Oklahoma State Capitol Collection (Oklahoma City, Oklahoma), Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts (Little Rock, Arkansas), California Palace of the Legion of Honor (San Francisco, California), The American Mission of the United States (State Department Geneva, Switzerland), Kirkpatrick Center Museum Complex (Oklahoma City, Oklahoma), The Center for Art in Wood (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania), Mint Museum of Craft + Design (Charlotte, North Carolina), Los Angeles County Museum of Art, (Los Angeles, California), Philbrook Museum of Art (Tulsa, Oklahoma), Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (San Francisco, California), Honolulu Museum of Art (Honolulu, Hawaii), Detroit Institute of Arts (Detroit, Michigan), Long Beach Museum of Art (Long Beach, California), University of Michigan Museum of Art (Ann Arbor, Michigan), Cincinnati Art Museum (Cincinnati, Ohio), Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (Boston, Massachusetts), Honolulu Museum of Art Spalding House formally Contemporary Museum, Honolulu (Honolulu, Hawaii), Minneapolis Institute of Art (Minneapolis, Minnesota), Yale University Art Gallery (New Haven Connecticut), Neutrogena Corporation (Los Angeles, California), States Art Council (Tulsa Oklahoma), and the White House Collection of American Craft, permanent displayed in the Red Room (White House) (Washington, D.C.).

References

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