Artist reminisces on Zoo mural he created 40 years ago
It’s a work of art that greeted millions of Buffalo Zoo visitors over its 40 years of existence. Now, it helps brighten up birthday parties and educational camps for children.
The piece in question is the 26-foot-wide, 5 1/2-foot-tall animal mural that now resides in the Buffalo Zoo’s birthday party room, which was created by Western New York native Lawrence Ronald in 1986.
Recently, Ronald paid a visit to his incredible creation four decades after it was first unveiled, and the memories came flooding back.
Ronald said the mural’s design was originally meant to be displayed on an NFTA Metro bus as a rolling advertisement, which was sought after by the Zoo’s then-director Minot H. Ortolani at the time. After submitting a sketch he worked almost 24 hours on, Ortolani ended up choosing another student’s work for the bus design.
The only reason Ronald’s wasn’t selected was because the former Zoo director had a bigger idea.
Ronald’s detailed design was far too ornate for a bus advertisement that would come down weeks later, so Ortolani offered up another proposal: the Zoo would use it as a permanent art installation.
“(Ortolani) said ‘We want you to do one, a permanent art installation for our collection for all time,” Ronald said. “I remember thinking to myself back then, ‘Gee, maybe in 40 years I’ll see it here again.’ And here we are.”
The mural took Ronald, a Daemen University graduate who used the project as his senior thesis, about a year and a half to fully complete. He was able to use the art studio at Daemen for free to complete the project, and he even constructed a 26-foot long easel for it.
When the colorful, three-dimensional mural was finally done, a grand unveiling was held on October 10, 1986 with various local media in attendance. The mural originally stood just inside the Zoo’s former main gate near our gorilla habitat before it was moved to our birthday party room in recent years.
In all, the mural features 12 different animals of varying sizes and colors, many of which still reside at the Buffalo Zoo today. Additionally, Ronald’s signature from 1986 is still clearly visible in the bottom corner of the gorilla within the mural.
“Just being part of the Buffalo Zoo is an honor,” Ronald said. “This (project) opened up so many doors for me, and Minot Ortolani was excellent to deal with.”
After completing the mural, Ronald went on to work as an outdoor advertising artist before becoming an art and special education teacher, which he did for 21 years, dabbling in other projects during that time. Nowadays, he fittingly works at the Buffalo AKG Art Museum with their preservation and safety team.
While he doesn’t actively create art anymore, Ronald is still passionate about it, and seeing his mural again all these years later brought back fond memories.
“It just makes me so happy,” Ronald said. “I’m so glad to see that (the Zoo) has had the chance to keep it up all these years.”
