Norwich — A smile came to Gladys Traynum's face as the frail, elderly granddaughter of Norwich African American folk artist Ellis Walter Ruley got her first look at a bronze bust of the artist unveiled Thursday during a ceremony at City Hall, where it will be on display for a year.

“Aww, Momma,” Traynum's daughter, Ruley's great-granddaughter, Dianne Laiscell said. “That's nice, that came out nice. That's Papa, huh, Mom?”

The bust was crafted by California documentary filmmaker Glenn Palmedo-Smith, who has been researching Ruley's life, artwork and mysterious death since 1992, when he purchased Ruley's “Adam & Eve” painting.

Palmedo-Smith, who said he learned sculpting in elementary school, donated the bust to Slater Memorial Museum at Norwich Free Academy in 1994.

But Slater Director Vivian Zoe said the museum had no proper place to display the sculpture, and it has been kept in storage for at least the past dozen years.

Slater loaned it to the city for the yearlong exhibit in the third-floor display case at City Hall.

Also on display are Palmedo-Smith's biography of Ruley, titled “Discovering Ellis Ruley,” and a one-page summary of Ruley's life and art.

The bust shows a cheery, clean-shaven older Ruley, head slightly cocked and wearing a casual, open collared shirt, a well-worn baseball cap and with his signature corncob pipe in his mouth.

“He had a corncob pipe,” Traynum said a few times nodding at the artwork.

The bust exhibit marks the first tangible goal realized by the Ellis Walter Ruley Project Committee, formed by the City Council in spring.

The group hopes to raise money to turn Ruley's overgrown property at 28 Hammond Ave. — now owned by the city — into an artist park and to commission an original play by New London-based Writers Block, Ink on Ruley's life.

The committee also hopes to launch an Ellis Ruley Festival and Tour, bringing artists to explore Ruley's artwork and tour sites, such as Mohegan Park and Uncas Leap, the settings for some of his paintings, the Slater Museum, where he sold his works on the lawn for $15 to $25, his home site and his grave at Maplewood Cemetery.

Interest in Ruley's art is spreading outside Norwich, as well.

Palmedo-Smith is editing his PBS documentary now projected to air in February 2017, that the filmmaker said will be broadcast internationally.

Palmedo-Smith said he hopes to end the film with shots of tourists visiting Ruley's sites in Norwich.

If a new traveling exhibit of Ruley's paintings occurs, he said he would publish a new edition of the book to include the story of last fall's exhumation of Ruley's body and the body of his son-in-law, Douglas Harris, that reopened criminal investigations into their suspicious deaths. 

Palmedo-Smith told the more than 50 people at Thursday's bust unveiling that more of Ruley's paintings “keep popping up.”

Laiscell said her great-grandfather painted about 500 works he sold or gave away, some he signed and some he marked with his name stamp. Some are unsigned, she said.

About five works have been discovered since Palmedo-Smith's book was published in 1994, including one at the Rhode Island School of Design he hopes to see Friday.

Palmedo-Smith told would-be Ruley treasure hunters to look for the white “Ellis Ruley” stamp in one or more corners of brightly colored paintings on poster board or masonite, the title of the work written in loopy, flowery writing on the back.

Project committee Vice Chairwoman Lottie Scott credited Palmedo-Smith for bringing Ruley and his art into the limelight.

“I think of this as a homecoming,” Scott said, “bringing Ellis Ruley home. He once was lost and now he has been found.”

c.bessette@theday.com

Twitter: @Bessettetheday