Lisa Houck talks Rob Moore

Interview: February 9, 2024

SPEAKERS

Lisa Houck, John Guthrie (JG)

Okay. Well, last year was the 30th anniversary of Rob's passing. I think he would have been 87 this year. I know you had a long relationship with him and I wanted to hear about it.

Lisa Houck

Well, interestingly, it wasn't long. I met him in 1988, I think. I was very friendly with him. But it was just the last, I guess, seven years of his life that I knew him. I was in the Graphic Workshop with him toward the very end. I did a poster that had darter fish on it. And he played the role which he'd played all the way through the Graphic Workshop, which was that he critiqued the poster. And he helped me to perfect it. All those people like Felice Reagan and Leo Burns and Augusta, I met all of them and saw their wonderful work, but I didn't know them until later on. It was really interesting.

So where did you meet Rob?

Lisa Houck

I met him at 59 Wareham Street. I was in graduate school at the Museum School, but I decided to get a studio outside of school. I was on the fifth floor, and I met Rob when he and Todd McKie set up a studio on the second floor.

So what year was that, that they moved in? Do you remember?

Lisa Houck

It was around 1988. I also recall meeting him at a party at Rugg Road Papers in Somerville. The minute you meet Rob, he becomes one of the most important people around. He and his partner, Brian, would invite me and my husband over for dinner all the time. He was just very much at the middle of the social scene. In our studio building, everyone would always be knocking on his door to ask for advice. And he told me that he would put a little towel at the bottom of the door so that you couldn't see that the light was on, because he was always being interrupted for these social visits or a discussion about their artwork!

I remember at MassArt he would never turn down anybody who wanted to critique. He was often at that school until 7pm because so many students wanted him to look at their work, even from other departments, sculpture, whatever. He was always up for crit.

Lisa Houck

He was. It's true. He just loved to talk about art. At the time I knew him, he was making oil paintings that were heavily encrusted. He would do layer after layer. Simple, minimalist paintings, where the colors would just change from day to day because he'd be constantly adding new layers. And that was a big body of work of his during the time I knew him. He also he started making wooden sculptures, which were very similar in composition to his paintings. These angles kind of organized with different kinds of patterns carved into them.

The thing that I got very involved with was when Rob wanted to make prints. And again, the prints were going to have similar formats to the paintings: they would be made of rectangles and triangles and simple shapes. He wanted to collage different pieces of paper that he had arranged in different ways and make it into an edition print. He was interested in learning how to do that.

My background was in printmaking; I had studied printmaking in the ‘70s, at RISD, and I had been doing it all these years. I was part of a print studio in Cambridge called the Tudor Street Etching Studio. I told Rob that he could come over to the studio, and we could work out how to translate this imagery into printmaking. And it was fun because he was very focused on getting the job done. I would want to show him some old technique of how to do things, and he would say, "Well, isn't it easier if we just do it this way?" He kept fine tuning: he would say, "Why do we have to use this old glue that you guys invented 100 years ago? Why don't we just use spring mount? It's so much more effective!" He figured out how to do things in a way that was high quality and archival but not old fashioned. I wondered how he editioned those – they do have collage, so I wondered how he could make so many. He would prepare a pile of the shapes he was going to use, then we would arrange each one on a plexiglass plate, so that it would get embossed into the paper as it ran through the press. He was so fun to work with, and so very open to learning new things. He was always getting expertise from different people, even though he was an expert himself. I really enjoyed that about him. You know, he didn't have to be the expert on everything.

I want this retrospective to show the kind of person he was. We're going to allow people to tell their Rob Moore stories and have it be a place where the whole community can go.

Lisa Houck

I went to his memorial service – it was at an Episcopal Church, and it was so full of joy and incredibly well attended. And that just spoke to how many people have been touched by him. I wish we could have some documentation of that, too. It was quite a gathering. But in any case, it just showed how many people wanted to come and honor him.

How many people have said, "Oh, everybody's referred to as a really good friend of Rob's." You, everybody! You know what I mean? Scores of people say, "Oh, this was one of Rob's best friends, oh, you've got to talk to someone." I love that.

Lisa Houck

I know. I only knew him towards the end of his life and I felt the same way. He really just took you in and wanted you to come for dinner and wanted you to be a part of all the events in the studio and in his life. That's why he was such a wonderful mentor to so many artists. He loved helping encourage artists.

I mean, I only knew him for two years. I had him as a professor and then he got me my studio right next to his. I was all ready for the Rob Moore party to get going. And then he died that same year. Six months later.

Lisa Houck

I know. And Rob was probably up for a lot more partying too. I'll tell you.

He was only 55.

Lisa Houck

I know he'd still be partying now.

I know, right? He could still be here. He really could. I mean, what a loss.

Lisa Houck

Even at age 50, he used to excuse himself from dinner parties at around 10 o'clock because he was ready for bed. He'd have you over and everyone would be having a great time and he'd say, "I'm just gonna turn in, but you guys just keep on going." He was very relaxed.

Do you know when he met Brian?

Lisa Houck

He was already with Brian when I met him, which was in the late 80s. They were a very, very special couple. You probably saw. Brian started making pottery toward the end of his life because he was so inspired by the artists around him. And he was very inspired by Rob's work. He was always funny. He would host a gathering for Rob and make appetizers to serve at the opening. And afterwards, he'd say, "Well, darlin, that was a $5,000 cheese ball," because they would have sold a bunch of work that night. So, anyway, Bryan was extremely supportive of Rob's career, and vice versa.

What about when he became sick? The last year?

Lisa Houck

I was able to visit him. I went many times to the hospital and to his home when he went into hospice care. He became very withdrawn. He didn't think it was fair. And I didn't think so either. It was very hard for him to be his same jolly self. He was very gracious having us come, because so many people wanted to visit him. But he didn't have a lot to say at that point. I would read things to him, people would send letters and friends would come from New York to visit. He always had people there, so I just tried to do whatever I could to be helpful. Everyone was bringing food. Of course, Brian always made amazing food. But it was...it was just hard. It was a very sad and moving thing to go through with him. To the end, he was always gracious. He would accept all the visits, but I can tell he was just kind of pissed off, you know? I mean, it shouldn't have ended like that.

Yeah. He was just at his house most of the time?

Lisa Houck

Yes. After going through a couple of hospitalizations and having a couple of procedures...you know, at that time, there were no treatments. So he was at home in hospice for those couple of months. He was actually in school teaching right at the beginning of the semester, and then he had to leave. And then he died on New Year's Eve, 1992. He was surrounded by so many people. Even at the memorial service...everyone wanted to come and see him. And people who couldn't get there were sending letters. He was getting a lot of love. But he just...he obviously had a lot more living to do.

In hindsight, when you look back at photos of him during that spring semester, you can tell he was sick then. But what about Brian after that? I know he passed away in ‘94.

Lisa Houck

Well, Brian moved to Martha's Vineyard. I visited him there at least once after Rob died. He also died of AIDS. He was sad to lose his partner and he was making the best of it, but that was a rough time. I think Rob felt for a while there that he was one of these people that was just never going to get AIDS. It was such a hard loss because he felt like the glue that held together so many different communities. You know, the Graphic Workshop community, the MassArt community, and the Boston art community in general. He was...he was the glue. A lot of us were wondering how many of us would still see each other after he was gone because he was the one that brought so many people together.

Yeah. And Wareham Street. Everywhere, really. That's the story of Rob Moore.

Lisa Houck

[Laughing] He was also wonderful at parties. Dancing and laughing, just outgoing, bringing people together. He was just that kind of person, you know?