Join author, Bill Roorbach and artist, Marjorie Moore for a conversation on art and literature inspired by critters.
Critters as Inspiration in Art and Literature: Marjorie Moore and Bill Roorbach in Conversation.
Marjorie Moore’s artwork is conceived and reflected in the long history of human/animal relationships. The intersections between the natural world and popular culture inform her work. Found objects, circus ephemera, old natural histories, and critters of many species are often the inspiration for her multimedia creations. Vintage toys play a role in Moore’s work, among them Lincoln Logs, monkey hand puppets, and Erector Sets, all among the toys that novelist Bill Roorbach played with as a child of the 1950s. His work, like Marjorie’s, is inspired by nature, and by concern for our sweet, spinning Earth. Curious George was a hero of his childhood reading, as was Pippi Longstocking, whose squirrel monkey, Mr. Nilsson, was one inspiration for Beep, the protagonist and narrator of Roorbach’s latest book, BEEP. Together, Beep and his human accomplice Inga save the world. It’s a happy ending, if you’re a monkey!
Moore and Roorbach will discuss the many interconnections of their work and their worlds. They will hope to strike a positive note about the planet we all must share, both with humankind and with all critters great and small.
MARJORIE MOORE
I lived in Maine from 1970 to 1993, throughout that period I was an active participant in the New England arts community. I exhibited frequently in both private and public institutions including Barridoff Galleries, Davidson Gallery, Yezerski Gallery, Boston; Bates Museum of Art, The Farnsworth, The Addison Gallery of American Art, and a one-person exhibition at The Portland Museum of Art in 1991.
In 1993 I relocated to Texas, living first in Houston and then in Austin, usually spending at least part of every summer in Maine. While in Texas I continued to pursue an active artist career, exhibiting in galleries and nonprofit institutions.
In the summer of 2017, I returned to Maine where I lived on Great Diamond Island for 8 years. I am now a resident in Portland, Maine. I am engaged as an active participant in the New England artist community. I maintain a studio in Portland on Munjoy Hill.
The direction of my work has evolved over several decades and includes many aspects of drawing, painting, combined media, and performance. I have a profound interest in the process of creating beauty from retrieved objects, both natural and human made. The categorization of objects in new kinds of taxonomy creates a narrative for artistic pursuit and promotes discussion on our human relationship to the diverse worlds we occupy.
BILL ROORBACH
Bill Roorbach is the author of 12 books of fiction and nonfiction, including the bestselling LIFE AMONG GIANTS, Maine Literary Award winner TEMPLE STREAM, and his newest novel, BEEP. His work has appeared in The Atlantic, The New York Times Magazine, Harper’s Magazine, New York Magazine, and many more. He’s a Civitella Rainieri fellow, an NEA fellow, a MacDowell fellow, and 2025 guest editor of the 50th Anniversary Pushcart Prize. He’s mostly retired from his academic career, which spanned 35 years, most recently at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, MA, where he held the Jenks Chair in Contemporary Letters, commuting from Maine, where he belongs. He lives in Scarborough with his wife, the artist Juliet Karelsen.