2013 Interviews

Rose Mosner - ART CART Oral History

Mosner, Rose; Adeyafo, Elizabeth; Lewis, Sydnea; Teachers College. Research Center for Arts and Culture

Rose Mosner, very early on as a child, was exposed to the best in art as her father took her through the finest New York Museums. So it wasn’t a surprise that her Bachelor’s and Masters degrees in fine art from Queens College would lead her into a long term career (20 years) of teaching and doing art in New York public schools. Highlights as a teacher were to recognize those students who “had the gift”. During this time her post graduate training continued at the School of Visual Arts (the New School and Adelphi University) where she acquired skills in woodworking, weaving and silk screen, all currently part of her current professional work. Although she retired early to pursue art, teaching hasn’t left her; since 2006, in New York and Washington DC she continues to teach collage classes in several senior centers at the New School, Educational Alliance, Iona Center and American University.
Doing art is her life, however. And collage is her major focus, from small pieces with beads, colored paper and found items to 3D abstract wood pieces shaped into exotic forms with a Dewalt Heavy Duty Scroll Saw. Her paintings are in acrylic, abstract, her work influenced by music, nature and especially art history. All is a challenge; at times she is working on several pieces, a hard-edged painting, a wood cut-out or a collage with buttons and styrofoam, each an experiment in media, a struggle of color, line and movement in search of a resolution. Her work has exhibited in 2011 at the Cahoon Museum American Art, Cotuit Mass., at the Corcoran Gallery in DC (2013), at the Rockville Art League, Rockville, MD. in 2014 and recently at the Leading Age Art forum, Univ. of DC, 2016.

In this oral history interview, Rose Mosner talks about her development from a young painter into an older artist using found objects in her art. The narrative includes a story about how she became interested in incorporating wood cuts into her art. Mosner explains the difficulty in naming her artwork because it is abstract and fluid, a constant evolutionary process. She also describes the differences between digital art or colleges and doing it hands-on, which she prefers.