Local artists Ron Copeland and Dave Desimone have been to cities like Buffalo, NY; Pittsburgh; Youngstown; Akron; Gary, Ind.; Detroit and Flint, Mich., all of which have endured the hardships of job loss, population decline and urban decay. It’s a pattern they know well. “When I was about nine years old, I witness the collapse of the steel industry … The once prosperous steel valley region deteriorated and rusted away with it tens of thousands of good paying jobs and a way of life for so many people,” Desimone said. Growing up around boarded-up houses and buildings, he realized and learned to accept decay as a part of the cycle of life and turn it into an inspiration. Now, his photographs of these places, along with the similarly inspired pieces by collage artist Copeland, are coming to Studio 2091 in an exhibition called, appropriately, “Temporary.” Copeland and Desimone both lived in the area and met at a group show in 2009 at Desimone’s former gallery, Low Life. Over the last few years, the duo has been traveling and exploring every abandoned building they could find. They got their hands on nearly everything, from factories and warehouses, steel mills and schools, even a few churches located in what has become known as the Rust Belt. Desimone works solely with photography, whereas Copeland creates collage pieces and installations using found objects. He has worked with many different materials in the past, such as vintage screen-printed posters and wallpaper. With this show, they wanted to display how the Rust Belt region has so many reminders of greater times. Still, none of it is to be taken as negative documentation, or as a political critique. The decay, say the artists, is part of an ongoing cycle that will soon signal new life. “We hope people will come away with an acceptance that everything is temporary, including our own existence. We are at peace with who we are and proud of where we came from,” said Desimone. Perhaps tellingly, he considers himself as “a historian with a camera.” “Temporary” will be at Studio 2091 in Cuyahoga Falls for the month of January, with the opening reception on Friday, January 13 starting at 6 p.m. For more information, visit www.studio2091.com.