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 (detail).

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.

Dr. Amazo II, 1988

Victor Moore
(American, born 1926, died 2013)

Location: Ridgeview Elementary, Yakima

ABOUT THE ARTWORK

Dr. Amazo II is part of artist Victor Moore's body of playful and unusual whirligigs (also called wind toys). The hand-carved wood artwork is activated by wind, via the fan blades at the front. Moore noted that "the idea of Dr. Amazo II came from my memory of magic shows that used to be staged throughout the country. They almost always had a 'fake' act of sawing a woman in half...we all knew we were being fooled, but we enjoyed every minute of it."

This artwork was acquired for the State Art Collection in partnership with Yakima 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.