The Life and Times of Ron English: Part I – Juxtapoz Magazine
March 5th, 2010
by Alexandra Iselin Waldhorn
From his living room, decorated with figurines and a three-foot tall obese Ronald McDonald, Ron English could look out the tall windows and see the Hudson River flowing beneath the quiet town of Beacon, New York. The three-story white house is propped on up stilts, making space for an added bottom floor studio where English creates his sui generis amalgams of rebellious pop art that speak to the sociopolitical issues of the day.
Photo by Adam Amengual.
A little over a year ago, English and his wife Tarssa Yazdani and their kids, Zephyr, 13, and Mars, 11, left Jersey City for the bucolic town, where English continues to paint protest with vivid color and precise lighting
But aside from expensive canvases reaching tens of thousands of dollars, English, is a political street artist who has pasted illicit posters on over 1,000 billboards across the country.
“It’s a second degree felony to make my art,” he said about his 30-year career. The tally so far: felonies committed, 2,000; arrests, four. Mussed blond hair the color of wheat parted down the middle grazes English’s shoulders and he wears boxy black-rimmed glasses. “Do not arrest this person,” his burgundy t-shirt warns in yellow letters. English commits freedom of speech.
