In 1891 Tanner proceeded to Paris and commenced study under Jean-Joseph Benjamin Constant and Jean-Paul Laurens at the Académie Julian. In 1890 Hartzell organized an exhibition of Tanner’s work in Cincinnati, and when none of the paintings sold he and his wife purchased them, thus providing Tanner with adequate finances for a period of study in Europe. Although this venture failed, it was there that the young artist met a bishop in the Methodist Episcopal Church named Joseph Crane Hartzell, who arranged for him to teach drawing at Clark University. In 1889 he established a photography studio in Atlanta, Georgia. He began to exhibit at the Academy and at the Philadelphia Society of Artists. The family settled in Philadelphia in 1868, and in 1879 Tanner enrolled in the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, where he studied under the direction of Thomas Eakins. Their son’s unusual middle name was derived from the name of the town Osawatomie, Kansas, where the abolitionist John Brown had initiated his antislavery campaign. Cast bronze is an extremely plastic and durable medium to work with." Run your hands over the surface of Rossi's bronzes - the details made by his hands and tools are evident.Henry Ossawa Tanner was born in Pittsburgh in 1859, the first of five children born to Reverend Benjamin Tucker Tanner, a future bishop in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, and Sarah Tanner, a woman who had escaped her enslavers via the Underground Railroad. I want to allow the form to emerge from the clay and metal. I've become more relaxed and learned to let the materials show me what they can do. "Although my work is realistic, I'm not interested in sculpting copies of nature. With humility and humor, Rossi allows the viewer to observe a quiet moment in the life of the subject he sculpts. Cottontails and blacktail jackrabbits, coyotes, white-tailed deer, and bighorn sheep graze the rocky slopes of Pusch Ridge. Heard always are the songs of the white wing dove and Gamble's quail. The earthy smell of creosote after a summer monsoon has no equal. In the rocky soil grow the saguaro cactus, palo verde, mesquite, and the most tenacious of all, the creosote bush. He knows the bajada well, that weathered slope at the foot of the mountains. In the tradition of early pilgrimages and journeys through the Southwest, his solitary travels are a spiritual meditation. Living for many years at the base of the magnificent Catalina Mountains north of Tucson, Rossi studies desert plants and wildlife while hiking and riding horseback in the hills and ravines. Mark went on to study at the University of Tulsa and at the University of Arizona in Tucson. The artists, conservators, and historians who frequented the museum inspired his artistic pursuit. When he was ten, he began observing his father, prominent Western artist and former Gilcrease Museum of Art director, Paul Rossi, as he worked in his studio and foundry. His love of the Southwest was deeply affected by his mother's Apache, Pueblo, and Spanish New Mexican heritage and the traditions she instilled. With both parents formally trained in fine arts. Mark Rossi's continued interest in nature and art emerged at an early age. They are called the "Restful Rabbit," the "Guard Rabbit" and the "Groomer Rabbit." Mark’s inspiration came from his father, who had a foundry and studio and by his mother, who has Apache, Pueblo, Spanish, and New Mexican heritage. each reflect the natural history of the Phoenix Salt River Valley. The three cast bronze rabbits, 8, 12 and 14 feet high, weighing between 1,000 and 1,500 lbs. In 1993, the sculpture was commissioned for the Three Blacktail Jackrabbits – a larger than life art installation in Centerpoint Plaza. Mark Rossi is no stranger to the public art scene in Downtown Tempe.
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