On Oct. 1, 2017, Ron Moore Jr. was watching television when news broke of a mass shooting in Las Vegas that claimed 60 lives.
He felt a need to do something to honor the lives lost. So he got work creating individual portraits of every victim that he could then give to family members.
In the years since, Moore estimates he has made 420 portraits of victims. He’s currently completing 18 pencil portraits of the victims in the Lewiston mass shooting and plans on traveling from his studio in Youngstown, Ohio, to Lewiston to present them to their loved ones.
“My third-grade teacher wrote on the back of my report card how much she enjoyed my drawings, and I took that to heart,” Moore said.
He concentrated on art in high school and attended two years of art school following graduation. But it all came to a halt in 2004 when he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease, which causes unintended or uncontrollable movements, such as shaking and difficulty with coordination.
Symptoms usually begin gradually and worsen over time. As the disease progresses, people may have difficulty walking and talking or see mental and behavioral changes, sleep problems, depression, memory difficulties, and fatigue. By 2008, Moore had lost any ability to paint or draw, leading him to question if he even wanted to live.
It was on a drive to a speaking appointment that Moore felt he’d had enough and made the decision to crash his van into a concrete structure. Before he could, it stalled out.
“How worthless was I — I could not even do that right,” he recalls thinking. “But then I remembered my grandfather once said sometimes you need to shut up, slow down and pay attention.”
Doing just that, Moore said he prayed for the ability to create art again and minutes later, his van restarted. It took another year, but in 2010, following a deep-brain procedure, Moore’s Parkinson’s symptoms were under enough control so he could start his art work again.
“I started drawing and painting again and have not stopped,” he said.
Moore leans heavily on his faith as he works on his portraits. So far, it has not let him down. His biggest challenge in doing victim portraits is obtaining photographs of them. Somehow, they always end up in his hands.
Saying he was “dumbfounded” when he learned of the Lewiston shooting, Moore reached out to media contacts to see if they could find photographs of the victims. He quickly had all 18 and got to work, posting photos of the finished portraits on his Facebook and Instagram accounts.
Moore normally completes two portraits a day, but was forced to take a break when he got to the photos of William Young and his 14-year-old son, Aaron Young, both of Winthrop, who were killed at Just-In-Time Recreation. Moore’s son is the same age.
“When I found out there was a dad and son, that one just stopped me,” he said. “I have not been able to pick those back up.”
Moore likes to research his portrait subjects as he draws so he can capture their unique characteristics. After seeing the posted portrait of shooting victim Bob Violette, a woman reached out to Moore to say he caught the “ornery smirk” on his face.
“I told her if I caught that and it makes you feel good, that’s great,” he said.
All 18 portraits will be in graphite pencil, a medium he says works well with his Parkinson’s Disease. Moore is currently working with the owner of a local diner to arrange his trip to Lewiston for portrait presentations.
“She said I will be welcomed with a red carpet,” Moore said. “Dude, I’m just a guy with a pencil, I don’t need a red carpet.”
