Artist Statement




I am a Texas native who came to Auburn University as an economics professor in 1977 and retired as Catherine and Edward Lowder Eminent Scholar in 2003. Between 2006 and 2007 I served as Acting Co-Director of the Jules Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art at Auburn. Although economics and writing was my much-loved career and ”business,” making and studying music and art-including art history and collecting art-were and continue to be my great passions.
The transformation of ideas and even the commonplace into fine or not-so-fine art is an eternal endeavor of human beings. My attempts to create art rest on this ageless quest. My study of the great artists of the past, European and American,has been my guide along with studio classes in drawing and watercolor. Largely self-taught, I have created landscapes, still lives and occasional figure drawings to illustrate the transformation of observed nature in oils, watercolor, pastels and prints. My particular interest has been to render the vast, mysterious and spiritual landscape of Taos, New Mexico and its environs in a variety of media. Each year, for over a decade, I have painted arroyos, valleys, mountains and abandoned adobes around Taos. I have also created studies of the Spanish missions of Texas and the Southwest and will develop similar treatments of subjects stemming from a lengthy stay of Europe. Ideally I, and all who work as artists, would like to create art that informs and provides new perspectives on our lives and those of the world around us.

Stonehenge Gallery, Montgomery, Alabama(Spring 1997).
Book Jacket Designs: University of Chicago Press, Edward Elgar Publishing, London.(1999)
1st Annual Juried Art Exhibition, Auburn Arts Association,(April-May 1999).
2nd Annual Juried Art Exhibition, Auburn Arts Association,(April 2000). Juror Mention for Adobes Olividado.
Biennial Members Exhibition, Auburn Arts Association (November-December,2000).
Exhibition of Recent Work by Bob Ekelund, Auburn University Center for Arts and Humanities at Pebble Hill (April-May 2001).
3rd Annual Juried Art Exhibition, Auburn Arts Association (March-April 2001).
Mostly Still Life: Solo Exhibition of Works by Bob Ekelund.(March 1-26,2002).
”Goddess Show,” Rattling Gourd Gallery (May 15, 2004).
6th Annual Juried Art Exhibition, Auburn Arts Association (April-May 2004).
Homage to Matisse, oil on canvas, in Noel and Kathryn Wadsworth Exhibit, Jules Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art at Auburn University (March-May 2004)
Missions and Mystery: Solo Exhibition of Works by Bob Ekelund. Rattling Gourd Gallery (January 29-February 19,2005).
7th Annual Juried Art Exhibition, Auburn Arts Association (april-May 2005)
Watercolor Society of Alabama, National Juried Watercolor Show, Birmingham Public Library, Birmingham, Alabama (September 2005).
”War and Peace Show," Rattling Gourd Gallery (April 2006)
8th Annual Juried Art Exhibition, Auburn Arts Association (April-May 2006)
9th Annual Juried Art Exhibition, Auburn Arts Association (April-May 2007)

Memberships:
Advisory Board, Jule Collins Smith Museum of Fine Art at Auburn University 2000-2006; 2007-2010.
Watercolor Society of Alabama, Board, Long-Range Planning, 2005-2007.
Auburn Arts Association