ORPAH ROSE BOSCH: Body of work

Billboard project immortilized artist's work throughout Southern Nevada

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Her great-grandfather fought in the Civil War under Custer. Her grandfather owned a plantation. Her brother-in-law introduced the bill that legalized gambling in Nevada.

Orpah Rose Bosch is now 90, and she, too, has put her mark on history. In the early 1980s, her artwork was chosen to grace billboards that were seen all over Southern Nevada. The billboards were the result of the Art in the Great Outdoors competition sponsored by Donrey Outdoor Advertising Company and the Allied Arts Council. A juried group of professionals chose Bosch's paintings of Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area and the burros as those that best represented the Mojave Desert.

A photo in her family album shows how her paintings, only about 11-by-14 inches, were reproduced by Donrey artists to be billboard size.

Bosch was born in Eureka in 1915, before women had the right to vote, before Pittsburgh's KDKA-AM became the first radio station. Her mother was a concert pianist. Her father was an attorney and later, a school superintendant. Bosch recalls always drawing one thing or another.

"My father used to tell me, 'Get out and get some exercise. Stop burying your nose in paper,' " Bosch said.

But she kept drawing and painting, and her work got noticed at her high school. She even did a painting that was reproduced in her school yearbook.

Education took precedence after that and she graduated from UNR with a degree in home economics and science. That led to teaching grammar school in Winnemucca.

It was then she learned the town's name honored Sarah Winnemucca. The woman's life interested Bosch so much, she found herself reading everything she could about the American Indian. That interest never has subsided.

"I feel she's close to me," Bosch said. "I've read so much about her."

She even found a photographic copy of Winnemucca's 1883 book, something she treasures and keeps close by these days.

Somewhere between her marriages, her profession and raising a family, Bosch kept painting -- either in water colors, oils or pastels.

She studied at the University of California at Berkeley, and the University of Utah to further her command of the doctrine.

When she wasn't painting pictures, she used her talents to decorate her house. But she also took time to be a mother. When her children were young, she read them fairy tales before tucking them in at night.

"You'd go to sleep and wake up to see Alice in Wonderland and Snow White had been painted on your walls overnight," said her daughter Rose Lee, a retired school teacher.

Bosch has brought a sense of tactile impressions to her work by weaving some with yarn. She's also used bark form Mount Charleston's trees to fashion a portrait of an American Indian chief. Her work has been carried by various galleries around the state. At one point, Bosch taught art at UNLV.

Her work has not gone unnoticed. Her many awards span decades and include first place in the Artists and Craftsman's Guild (1967); Judges Award Clark County District Art Show (1976); Las Vegas Art Museum Graphic Award (1979); first place in both the American Mothers Show and Jaycees State fair (1980); and second place in the Helldorado Art Show (1980).

A typed list of her awards continues for three pages. Her latest was the People's Choice Award in 1997 from the Las Vegas Art Museum.

These days, Bosch sits at her easel and paints every day. She can finish an oil painting in a couple days, and a pastel -- her favorite topic is Americans Indians -- in a few hours.

"Just about every day she calls me and says, 'Can we get to Aaron Brother's or Joanne's, I need more supplies,' " Lee said. "Either that or she'll need something out of her storage unit. It's filled with paint supplies like you've never seen."

When not painting, Bosch likes to bake, watch her favorite soap opera and is an avid reader. Her next painting, a secret gift, is already jelling in her mind. The subject is a 100-year-old neighbor.

"I want to see her expression when she first sees it," Bosch said.