Rodney Ray

Rodney Ray is a Decorative Artist born in Fort Worth, Texas August 31st, 1971. At an early age he exhibited an exceptional talent for illustration and composition. At sixteen, he began an apprenticeship for his brother-in-law, Brad Smith-who, at the time, owned a large Mural company in Dallas, Texas. Mr. Ray's first mural with Mr. Smith was an exterior commission 100' long and 20' tall titled "The Legendary Sound of Deep Ellum". This project took place over the course of 3 days during the "Change Your Life" festival in Deep Ellum, Dallas, TX. Together, the two developed a very successful business for Mr. Smith as Big Picture Murals. Their client list included such renowned commercial chains as Remington's Seafood, Larry's Shoes, Denim and Diamonds and Lombardi's Restaurants. Completing 100 murals in 1994, there was virtually no style not included in their arsenal. Mr. Ray went on to apprentice for Brad Smith for 10 years until artistic difference split the two in 1997.

This split led Mr. Ray to pursue a new set of clientele. Coming from a commercial background, he focused on the residential market in what some of his peers referred to as a "step backwards". However, he elevated the residential decorative painting market to new heights with his relentless pursuit of innovative and elaborate finishing techniques. Drawing on a plethora of working knowledge of paint chemistry from years of working with whatever was available, he was able to develop new glazes, plasters and stucco compounds that allowed for larger projects to be completed faster and easier that ever before. In 1998, his company completed a record 42 commercial and residential projects in less than 11 months. Many decorative painters in the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex were apprenticing under Mr. Ray's tutelage at the time and starting to spread the word of these new methods and materials to other parts of the country.

As a result of the close-knit nature of the burgeoning industry, word spread quickly and online message forums were developed to help educate the contractors on updates and dispel many myths carried-over from the strait-paint industry. These forums brought thousands of members in front of Rodney simultaneously for education and training. However, online training was hardly enough for most as they began to request that he develop a school and curriculum for training students. In August 2000, Rodney Ray hosted the first class at Fine Art Finishes Studios in Burleson, Texas. Accepting only 12 students for a rigorous 7 day program that included paint chemistry and porosity lessons along with a multitude of hands-on samples, Mr. Ray unwittingly developed a program that caused a great deal of unrest among most of the major decorative paint manufacturers at the time.

As he taught people to make their own materials and not rely on proprietary systems for their projects, manufacturers were seeing a decline in sales and profits. However, many European and Mediterranean-based companies were looking for representation in the proliferating decorative industry of the United States and sought just such a school as Mr. Ray offered. This non-product-controlled curriculum allowed for open expression of The creative process and was modelled after the traditional programs offered throughout Europe. Thus, Mr. Ray became a national distributor for a multitude of overseas companies over the course of the next few years. Each company allowed him to experiment with their products and promote only those that he approved as necessary of "time-saving" for the artisan. In other words, materials that took more time or effort to create than the artist should feasibly devote to material assimilation were deemed effective and useful.

During this time, Mr. Ray traveled extensively throughout the United States teaching and lecturing to 100s of people in a single session. As his travels increased, so did his popularity with decorative painters as an artists' advocate who was not obligated to any manufacturer and was willing to teach only that which was required to complete a project while keeping the artisan's best interests at the forefront. This notoriety enabled Mr. Ray to be invited larger venues and associated with such organizations as the PDCA and PDRA as a guest speaker and educator. It also allowed him to be called in as a consultant on projects that might not have otherwise been considered decorative ones had the industry not evolved so quickly to encompass so many facets as education spread rapidly over the internet and through these international conventions.

One such project requesting Mr. Ray's knowledge of Lime Plasters was a Decorative Concrete job in 2001 in Austin, Texas. The contractors needed a cementitious overlay system that would not delaminate or chip for a slab that was damaged during construction. He immediately went to work on a formulation that would have INCredible compression strength and adhesion without sacrificing porosity or alkalinity for the subsequent staining that was to take place. He soon developed what would later come to be known as the Bella Vernici Concrete Overlay System. This formulation enabled the project to be completed on time and under budget and ingratiated him with an entirely new market of concrete contractors. He then went on to develop a non-acidic, waterborn staining system that eliminated the hazards commonly affiliated with concrete staining. This revolutionary system caught-on rapidly and soon set the standard by which all subsequent water-based concrete systems would be judged.

Mr. Ray continues developing materials for the concrete industry and primarily focuses on consulting for large decorative bridge projects for Departments of Transportation throughout the United States. He also hosts a large decorative painting convention known as the Faux Expo (http://www.FauxExpo.com) and has brought Master European artisans to teach and exhibit to United States attendees in convention centers in New York, Dallas, and Los Angeles. He still occasionally teaches throughout the U.S. at decorative painting studios and industry trade shows. More informaion on Mr. Ray can be found at http://www.BellaVernici.com or in periodical publications like Faux Finisher Magazine, Paint and Decorating Retailer, PaintPRO Magazine, Concrete Construction and Concrete Decor