Ran DeBord is best described by the Robert Frost poem: "The Road Not Taken." His current works are the result of the evolution of a unique approach to painting undertaken over a decade ago. A professional oil painter for years, his "Latex on Lexan" work has been in the "trial and error" studio phase for most of the past ten years. It is the culmination of a vision for a new approach (an approach not taken) to landscape paintings as well as the framing and support structure, that is now gallery worthy.
A fifth generation Texan, he has lived all across the U.S. but spends as much time as possible living, hiking, camping and exploring in New Mexico, Big Bend and the Mountains of Central Mexico, often primitive camping for weeks at a time. Time spent in the Mountains of Central Mexico with the Indigenous people have served to put life in proper context to him. An avid outdoorsman, he supports organizations such as "The Nature Conservancy" and "The Sierra Club" with donations from the proceeds of the sale of his works. He is also involved with and supports a Christian Medical organization that transports Doctors and other healthcare professionals and supplies to remote villages in the Mountains of Central Mexico to serve those most in need.
"The remoteness of the mountains and the difficulties of surviving in rugged conditions clears my mind after a few weeks. We are bombarded with visual and audible advertisement constantly. Everywhere we look we are told what to wear and when to wear it. What to watch and when to watch it and so on. When I venture forth, as I do, ultimately I stop the world as we know it and see it from a totally different perspective. Connecting to God, and the Earth, are prerequisites for my return to civilization. My Art flows from me afterwards non-stop. My vision is to help people draw a sense of wonder back into their lives… to slow down and witness a sunset or moonrise, I have seen so many wonderful, amazing things in nature, that I want to share that energy and excitement with others through my paintings."
Ran DeBord
1. The Road Not Taken
by: Robert Frost
TWO roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;
Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,
And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.
I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.
"The world is incomprehensible. We won't ever understand it; we won't ever unravel its secrets. Thus we must treat it as it is, a sheer mystery! An average man doesn't do this, though. The world is never a mystery for him, and when he arrives at old age he is convinced he has nothing more to live for. An old man has not exhausted the world. He has exhausted only what people do. But in his stupid confusion he believes that the world has no more mysteries for him. What a wretched price to pay for our shields!"
Don Juan Matus, 1971