THE ROB MOORE PROJECT

DAVID SIPRESS

I met Robbie at Jack's bar on Mass Ave. in 1971. He hung out there – he was a friend of the owner, Jack. It was an amazing venue for music. People like Bonnie Raitt and The Cars started performing there. Robbie was sitting at the bar and started up a conversation with me. He was the most seductive, attractive human being I'd ever encountered. Immediately I felt drawn to him–not in that way, but just as somebody I really wanted in my life. And I think a million people felt that way. It was beautiful. He was hilarious. He had a wonderful combination of dignity mixed with the ability to make fun of himself. And that combination was just amazing…

lisa houck

I 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!

chris mesarch

I became friends with Rob at the [Graphic Workshop]; before that I was a student of his at Mass College of Art. I remember the first day he walked into class. We were a group of sophomore graphic design majors, expecting to be taught immediately how to design great record album covers. After all, the course was named "Design". "I'm going to teach you all about color," he announced. First things first…

paul swenbeck

Rob taught me everything vital that I needed to know about painting. I celebrated a lot of firsts working alongside Rob Moore in the studios at MassArt from 1989-91. His mentorship was an experience that has lingered with me and was reignited when I had a chance to teach in recent years…

joy feasley

Rob was intimidating. You had to brace yourself during studio visits.. you knew he was going to be quick, precise and brutally honest.

I shared a studio space with the one person who challenged Rob relentlessly.. she was a petite, 85 year old landscape painter. Rob didn't know what to do with her and she pushed his buttons. He yelled "that's a John Marin painting!", and then they shared a good belly laugh. 

Dinny Herron

Rob loved to go to St Cloud Restaurant in the South End for lunch. We went occasionally and when we walked there, he would take my purse and wear it over his shoulder. Don’t ask me why. Once when we walked to lunch, he told me a story about himself when he was a little boy growing up in Swanee, Tennessee…

Robin Reynolds

Rob was my professor at MassArt from 1988-89. He was a god to me! I was doing abstract work with many different kinds of materials and he convinced me to take my work off the wall and start making 3D work instead in the painting department. He was also taking his work from 2-D to 3-D at that time and creating painted sculptures…

Cheryl Bartlett

I met Rob in 1990 from his partner Brian on Nantucket. I was the founder of the Nantucket AIDS Network with friends who grew up on Nantucket, where Brian spent many years living and visiting. Rob donated several pieces of his art for our annual Friendship Gala and Auction, our major source of funding. After his death, Brian took up making ceramic bowls that were primitive looking with an African feel. I am happy to enjoy two pieces of Rob's art and several of Brian's bowls. They are missed by many Nantucketers.

Dick Weisberg

I guess I am VERY late to the party, but I just discovered you, the gallery and the Rob Moore Project as I was researching Rob.

He was one of my teachers at MassART. I think his first year there was my Freshman year, Fall 1965. I remember him first as a young professor, feeling his way through that early teaching experience. I left school to pursue a music opportunity and returned in January 1972. Rob had transformed as had the world. I look back on those times with some regret because I was still too “green” and distracted to really appreciate all that Rob could have offered me. It is only now, after a lifetime of experiences that I have returned to thinking about him and now having to appreciate him from afar.

“Don’t it always seem to go that you don’t know what you’ve got til it's gone.” Joni Mitchell

Thank you for the Rob Moore Project