A professor of art for over thirty years at East Carolina University, native North Carolinian Paul Jerome Hartley is survived by two distinct artistic legacies: the hundreds of students he enthusiastically instructed and mentored; and the mixed media works of art he created to intrigue and inspire generations of viewers. Characterized by abstractly painted backgrounds, Hartley’s works often feature meticulously rendered foreground objects that appear to be adhered to the two-dimensional canvas, as seen in The Waltz.