The growth of a carver from bird pins to Moebius Strips and more.

1. The Art of Rosanna
Moore
by
Fred McLeod
(nephew)

2. Rosanna once wrote that she
could not remember a time
when wood did not fascinate
her. In fact, she borrowed her
father’s pocketknife so often
that at age 10 she received
her own. Perhaps, in 1934,
that was not socially cutting
edge, but out of such small
things lives both grow and
blossom.

3. My Aunt crafted art grounded in
nature. “Concrete Bridge across
Bloody Run,” the earliest work I
know of, is a mundane oil painting.
Within walking distance of her
father’s house and dated 1946, I
suspect it was made the summer
after she graduated from Ohio State
University with a Bachelor of
Science in Education.

4. Fifteen years later she started
the Art Program at Southwest
Licking Schools, Pataskala
Ohio. I do not know when she
began to carve bird pins, but
she made hundreds of them.
If you look, they can still be
found for sale on the internet
at sites like Etsy and E-Bay.

5. • Growth of an artist is hard
to track, but I think this
1970 painting suggests that
very thing. The barn,
where her grandfather
worked as a blacksmith,
contained her first
woodshop. When it was
torn down in the 1960’s,
she picked up this piece of
roof slate. Years later it
became a canvas.

6. • Carving pins and small birds
remained a part of what she did as
an artist throughout her life.
• Here is a display case Rosanna
made for some of her early work.
• Though it would be easy to say
that making duck and geese
decoys would be the natural
progression, her growth as an
artist was not that simple.

7. Many of her works
were undated. This life-
sized owl and the tiny
owl in the cavity of
“found” wood show
styles used early in her
development.

8. Rosanna and Red, (Elaine
Redmond) longtime
housemates, were an
inextricable part of my life.
In the late 1970’s, I had a
conversation with them.
The question my Aunt
asked: should she date her
work? She thought it might
be presumptuous because
she doubted what she
made was art. Yet, what
else could it be?

9. Though Rosanna loved teaching, when she retired in 1981 it gave her time to
create. She hosted the “Land of Legends” carving club, displayed her work at
carving shows, and lived a rich life. Here’s two pieces that straddle her
retirement, a 1980 Canada Goose, notice the chisel marks on the finished work,
and a 1986 painted version.

10. She worked hard at her
craft and grew more
confident, yet where
craft becomes art is
difficult to know.
“Soaring through
Summer”(1996)

11. As she developed her
own style, her carvings
became smoother. This
2001 Loon shows how she
used the grain of the
wood to suggest the
texture of feathers.

12. Perhaps the kingfisher carving “Homage to the King” (2001)
leans towards craft, but “Heron Walking” steps into something
more stylized (2001).

13. These pictures display the process of creating
the first version of “Spirit of Freedom.”

14. Somewhere inside Craft is Art.

15. However, the
artist inside
Rosanna was not
satisfied with the
first version so she
made a 2nd with
white wings.

16. Creating different
versions, exploring visual
themes was a common
practice for her.
Meadowlark watercolor,
&
Meadowlark carving
(1984)

17. “Burr Oak Leaf” (1986)
Though her early work
was dominated by
carvings of birds, that
eventually changed. This
leaf, one of my favorite
pieces, sits on a
bookshelf in my study.

18. Ohio native
Trees
Imagine how much effort it took to
create this display: a leaf carved
out of the same wood as the tree,
with a small branch beside it cut to
show the grain. I think when she
was crafting these small works, her
thoughts were on both art in
nature and the nature of Art.

19. Whenever she walked in
the woods what she
found could become art,
the ordinary transformed
by depth of vision.
“Early Spring (1989)
(skunk cabbage)
Bloodroot Shoot 1991

20. Whether a delicate
flower made solid
Calla Lily (1996)
or a rotting cedar root,
dug out of a fencerow,
twined by a vine,
dirt still clinging,
she saw
what could be.
Horns (1992)

21. This cherry stump sat on her back porch for an entire
summer as she transformed what nature provided into
something more than a dead piece of wood.

22. “Rifle Ladies” 2009
• With her eye for shapes, and a bit of
humor, she found a feminine form in the
stocks of old .22 rifles,

23. Unicorn (2005)
• or took a short section of wax sealed
sycamore, bought with a pile of wood at
an auction by my wife and I, and created
something unexpected.
• If you look closely, you can see a
naturally occurring flaw in the wood
makes it seem like the unicorn is
shedding a tear.

24. She created art objects
while exploring the world
of shapes, whether it was
an untitled work opening
a ball’s inner grain or a
named piece with the
suggestive title:
“Growth.”

25. I am not an art critic, yet even though I don’t like these two sculptures, I included
them because I recognized themes that show up in other pieces. She did not
work in a vacuum, creating out of thin air, the process mattered.
“Flight” 2005 “S with slash” 2009

26. Perhaps Rosanna was at her best
when she balanced the abstract with nature.
Do you see the mouse?

27. Yet, I cannot deny the power of her abstract work.
“Integrity” “Torus”

28. The shape she
returned to time
and again,
however, was the
Moebius Strip.
“A Tangled Life”
& double Moebius.

29. The unbroken surface, with a twist, spoke to her about life.
“Recycle” “Split Moebius”

30. The titles of her work suggest that meaning.
“Time and Space” “Hope is the thing with feathers,”
from Emily Dickinson.

31. I have never known a wiser,
gentler soul. Rosanna’s faith
brought out art. The
“Madonna music box” was
made for her stepmother.
The symbol of the Unitarian
church expressed her hope
for inclusion.

32. From “Angel in
Ironwood” and
“Spirit”

33. to different
versions of
“Spirit Seed”

34. to traditional
motifs
expressed in
her own way,
“Nativity”
“Madonna
& Child”

35. to the “Dancing
Stars” that
echoed that sign
over Bethlehem,
her faith was
grounded in, but
not limited by
tradition.

36. Wind in Willow
• Vision can be found, yet it is not
earned by idle hands and her
hands were rarely idle. Time and
effort, research and thought
brought power to transform what
she touched. Like any artist, it was
a life of becoming.
• I hope this short presentation
has helped display Rosanna’s
growth as an artist. It can only hint
at how much she was loved.
• Fred McLeod