Artists’ work, lives grounded in nature

     It seems appropriate that Rooster Barnhart and Missy Rogers met on a raft trip.

The currents of rivers and nature flow through the Delta artist couple’s work and lives.

He’s a Gunnison Gorge river ranger who designs and builds fine custom wood furniture and art pieces off-season. She’s a former Montrose elementary and high school art teacher who grew up in Nashville, Tenn., along the Stones River, which flows into the Cumberland.

Her paintings focus largely on area landscapes, like a soft pastel in their living room she calls “Big tree at the mouth of the Gunnison Gorge.” Rooster made the walnut frame.

Their home, which contains Missy’s studio and Rooster’s adjacent woodshop, sits on a hill with expansive views of Grand Mesa, the sky and farmland below. The Gunnison Gorge, which Missy calls “Rooster’s piece of the world,” is nearby. Wildlife abound, including deer, hawks, herons, migrating sandhill cranes and a red fox who is casing their straw-bale chicken coop. Their house is surrounded by big cottonwood trees and willows. A huge vegetable garden waits to be tended.

“We really love the big sky and views here,” Rooster said.

Their warm, inviting home reflects their aesthetic and values. Missy painted the floor, and her art and Rooster’s wooden “river cabinets” adorn the walls. A piece of curly maple, which has a watery look, was the inspiration for the first wall-mounted river cabinet, Rooster said. Though the cabinets are made of different woods, all the rivers are made of the curly maple.

 “The cabinets are beautiful and functional, too,” said Missy. She uses one to store her jewelry. A masculine version holds Rooster’s bolo ties, a watch, key chains and other items. Some clients have bought them to use as medicine cabinets or display collectibles.

A master craftsman, Rooster has made much of the furniture, including coffee tables, a Stickley-style desk, and a cherry-and-white oak dresser that Missy apprenticed on. It has a free-flowing grain pattern and open drawer pulls. “It was a challenging piece,” said Rooster. “I like living with it.”

“The design was what was fun,” he said. “The design aspect is the challenge.”

An antique woodburning cookstove is a focal point of the kitchen. Rooster and Missy both enjoy cooking, and Rooster makes a great cup of coffee.

The middle child of an artist father and a fun-loving, creative mother, Missy  spent a lot of time outdoors swimming, biking, hiking and exploring during her childhood.

“I was always collecting sticks and stones,” she said. “My pockets would be full of interesting things I’d picked up.” She still collects rocks, twigs, and other interesting wood, along with her father’s carvings and wooden walking sticks.

Early on she discovered the connections that rocks, natural objects and water have to the earth and larger world. “There’s obviously an order here. The world really is a living organism we’re part of and can’t be separate from.”

She studied art at George Peabody College for Teachers in Tennessee, and received a bachelor’s degree in art education from the University of New Mexico. She moved to Montrose  after completing school, and has since taken additional workshops and graduate courses.

Rooster, a native of Pueblo whose name came from his red hair, grew up on a celery farm. He earned a degree in diesel mechanics and worked in that field for nearly a year, then got a job as a crew chief in the Grand Canyon, where he worked with high school students. It was a turning point in his life.

“Working with the kids and being outdoors was a real eye-opener,” he recalled. “We lived in the bottom of the canyon and on the rim, did a lot of good projects for the park, and shared the joy of the natural world. We had a wonderful time.”

He then spent two years working at Glacier National Park, followed by thinning trees in Alaska, building houses and doing carpentry work. He moved to Montrose around 1983 and landed a job at a cabinet shop. Five years later he went out on his own. Classes at Anderson Ranch art center in Snowmass, Colo. have further enhanced his skills.

Pieces he has designed and built include breakfronts, dining room tables and chairs, entertainment centers, desks, windowsills with natural, free edges, and even chess sets. He has worked largely with hardwoods from the East and Northwest, and more recently with some handmilled wood from the Western Slope, such as Russian Olive from Cedaredge and green ash from Delta. “Milling it up myself gives me more possibilities to go in different directions,” he said.

Most of Missy’s artwork is done outside, called plein-air. “It’s about our connection to the landscape, how it affects us and how we affect it. She also works from imagination, dreams and memory, with pieces that are evocative of feelings.

In addition to making art, Missy works in people’s homes, helping them with design, color, furnishings and furniture arrangement. “You can change a room with light and color so it becomes the space people seek out,” she said. Rooster builds furniture for some of her projects. She credits her father for helping her develop a sense of aesthetics. “He has an incredible eye for arranging. He also taught her to “recognize the beauty of what is,” to move beyond ego, and not be bound by limitations.

Rooster, who has worked as a seasonal river ranger for the BLM since 2000, likes the balance river work brings to his life. “When it starts to get cold in the fall, it feels good to be in here (his studio). When it starts warming up, it’s good to be outside. They both do good things for each other.

“We both have spent a lot of time outside,” Rooster continued. “I think it affects our work, and our aesthetic. Our aesthetic is grounded in nature.”

Free time is spent growing a lot of their own food, back-country skiing, hiking, camping, traveling, visiting family, and volunteering in conservation efforts. Rooster also is a Hospice volunteer.

Being a creative couple works well for them, they say. “Like any couple, it all comes down to not losing sight of taking care of each other, being kind and giving each other room,” said Rooster.  “I don’t think we’re unique that way. We appreciate each other.”

Editor’s Note:

Missy’s art will be on display at the Creamery Art Center in Hotchkiss in June. For information call (970) 872-4848. To contact Missy or Rooster about their work call (970) 874-5520.