Artwork copyright Victor Moore. Photo courtesy of Washington State Arts Commission, 2017 (detail).

Artwork copyright Victor Moore. Photo courtesy of Washington State Arts Commission, 2017.

Artwork copyright Victor Moore. Photo courtesy of Washington State Arts Commission, 2017.

Heron II, 1985

Victor Moore
(American, born 1926, died 2013)

Location: La Center Senior High School, La Center

ABOUT THE ARTWORK

Heron II is an example of artist Victor Moore's sculptures that combine wood and welded steel. The figure is inspired by the herons the artist and his wife saw daily near their farm pond in Pullman, Eastern Washington. The head and neck of the heron bird were carved from a bent tree limb, the legs were formed from the welded pieces of an old tricycle, and the feet were made from old nails.

This artwork was acquired for the State Art Collection in partnership with La Center School District.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Eastern Washington artist Victor Moore (1926-2013) created artworks characterized by their resourcefulness, craftsmanship, imagination, and humor. He is most known for his carved-wood whirligigs, as well as for his "Junk Castle" west of Pullman in Eastern Washington. The art of creating whirligigs began for Moore when he was teaching high school art and directed his students to create whirligigs as an assignment. He enjoyed them so much himself that he began seriously creating whirligigs in 1985.
Moore taught art at Pullman High School for over twenty years until 1979, and he also taught at Columbia Basin College in Kennewick, Southeastern Washington, in the late 1990s. He was a veteran of World War II (1939-45) and the Korean War (1950-53). He received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Central Washington University in Ellensburg and a Master of Fine Arts degree from Washington State University in Pullman.