The Gallery at Rua, an art gallery located in Warsaw, Indiana, is hosting a special showing of selected works by Indiana Wesleyan University’s Ron Mazellan, chair of the Division of Art + Design. Mazellan’s collection, titled “The Art Behind the Art,” will be on display through April 27 in the Brennan Room of Warsaw’s new restaurant, Rua.
Mazellan’s exhibit will feature selected sketches and drawings as well as finished paintings from his past work. The show will highlight the spontaneous life and beauty inherent in his preliminary work and his classroom demonstrations— a “peek” behind his finished works.
“My sincere hope for my paintings and drawings at Rua Gallery is to communicate that art, like life, is a journey which yields unpredictable and favorable results worthy of the effort, if you persist,” said Mazellan.
Mazellan, an award-winning illustrator, has been a faculty member in the IWU Division of Art + Design for more than twenty years. His work has enriched such books as New York Times Bestsellers, “You Can Be A Friend,” by Tony and Lauren Dungy, and “The Longest Season,” by Cal Ripken Jr. Other notable titles include “The Harmonica,” “Finding Daddy” and “A is for Abraham.”
Mazellan has been awarded the Christopher Award and The NAACP Image Award Winner for “You Can Be A Friend,” the Gelett Burgess Award and Sydney Taylor Honor Book for “Irena’s Jars Of Secrets,” and the Sydney Taylor Honor Book and the Skipping Stones Honor Award for “A is for Abraham.”
His illustrations have been selected by jury to appear in Communication Arts Illustration Annual 52, Creative Quarterly, The Journal of Art and Design and The Society of Illustrators 48th Annual of American Illustration, and he is currently a member of the Society of Illustrators.
The Gallery at Rua is open to the public during regular Rua hours: Tuesday through Friday 11 a.m.-2 p.m. and 5 p.m.-close; Saturday 10 a.m.-2 p.m. and 5 p.m.-close. Rua is located at 108 East Market Street, Warsaw, IN 46580.
For more information about Mazellan or the IWU Division of Art + Design, visit www.indwes.edu/undergraduate/division-of-art-and-design/.