Brandon Long is an artist from Lancaster, KY, who embraced his artistic identity at an early age – telling his kindergarten classmates, “I am an artist.”
While he enjoys working in many different types of artistic media, he is most drawn to creating mixed-media art with found/recycled/repurposed materials. He is perhaps best known for his work with repurposed roofing tin in which he reimagines the rusty and patina-ed metal surfaces as elements of collage or abstract painting.
Brandon has taught art for the community since 2001 and locally taught and mentored students in Lincoln County’s 21st Century grant program.
He served as Visual Arts Director at the Art Center of the Bluegrass in Danville, KY, from 2007-2021 as an exhibitions curator, art instructor, and graphic designer/visual artist before branching off on his own to pursue art full time.
Here’s what Brandon says about the Stanford Inn Mural Project:
“It all starts with the space and how the viewers and visitors will interact with the artwork. With the Stanford Inn at Wilderness Road murals, it’s an interesting experience to try to create a believable amount of depth. To set the focal point, I sit on the bed in the center of the room and imagine where the horizon should be – then try to expand from there. Since most of the murals in this series have been about local historical scenes from the area, I’ve been fortunate enough to have some great photographs of old Stanford – some possibly from the 1940s and maybe even the 1910-20 era. Since the downtown area has been so well preserved, I could step out of the room I was working in, walk a few hundred feet and literally see the building I was painting for reference. A couple of the murals depict history from before the invention of photography, so I have to do a bit more research. Local historians and re-enactors (as well as photographs of re-enactments) have been a great help in assisting with the elements of historical accuracy.”