Isaac LongHouston, Texas

Isaac Long

A slideshow containing images by photographer Fred Scruton.

Southwest Region

Southwest

Isaac Long (b. 1942)

Word Of God House

Art Type or Medium: Environment/Installation; Signage

Status: active

Viewable: yes

Secular or Religious: Religious

A retired contractor, Mr. Long recalls beginning in the sheet-metal business at 22, becoming a welder and later a general contractor for steel buildings and the construction and remodeling of houses.  He worked for the Halliburton Corporation for about 2 1/2 years.   He’s owned his house since around 1980, and once had a welding shop on adjacent property.  His wife who died in 1996 maintained a gift shop next door. 

He says his surname is an artifact of the slave trade and links it to the ancestors of former Louisiana Governor Huey Long.

He’s says he’s painted and drawn all his life.  Around 1998 he began to display religious signage in an effort to offer spiritual guidance to a troubled neighborhood, “scriptures are a way of being led through life.”  “People won’t acknowledge the truth that Jesus created man and the world.”  “I come out every morning, sit here and talk to God about everybody on earth (even non-Christians).” 

Initially paralyzed by a stroke in 2016, he was unable to get himself out of bed that morning and he’s lost the use of his left arm, but has otherwise recovered well.  Isaac believes we are “in the times of Revelations” and that “somewhere the Anti-Christ is already here.”  “I don’t care if people think I’m loose in the head.”  A few non-religious paintings are displayed in the large enclosed porch behind where he sits just off the sidewalk, but Mr. Long seems primarily interested in doing what he can to help save the world from its manifest shortcomings.

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