 |
| Photo by Carol Treat Morton Artwork by Olle Eksell |
Our story begins in Frostbite Falls, Minnesota.
(Had to get that Rocky and Bullwinkle nod out of the way.)
I’ve been driving up to Elyria every couple of weeks since about May 2019, helping Mom declutter her huge ranch to get it ready for sale. She’s in good health, but taking care of a big house and a large piece of property (with a pool) is way past getting to be way too much.
My parents bought the place in 1971, so there are decades worth of stuff to sort, save and clear out. It’s a cool home, and my well-traveled parents filled it with an eclectic collection of art and furniture, heavy on the MCM influence.
One recent Sunday, our plans to tackle the attic were stymied, so we went into the office, which we’ve been working on bit by bit, and pulled a bunch of file folders to go through. Dad was a fanatic about keeping receipts for everything, (and keeping lots of other stuff, too) and I think this habit rubbed off on Mom.
We get to the last folder, pix of antiques, records of art purchased, jewelry appraisals, etc. As we’re tossing and saving, an envelope with a brochure and a business card slips out.
The brochure was tucked in the folded over envelope. It came from a shop in tiny Patagonia, AZ, which Mom visited on a birding trip in 2006. The shop had some weavings by Joe Montell, and she was instantly struck by one similar to the one below, which was pictured in the brochure. It looks like the artist’s name is woven in red.
It was a very large work, and the price was $3,000. Though she could afford it, she thought it was just too much money, but was tempted enough to have the shop send her along the artist’s brochure. She never bought the weaving.
Flash back to October 2019. Good friend Carol Morton hosted BFFs and me for the Detroit Free Press 13.1 marathon. In her new home. With a cool shower curtain (at the very top of this post) that we both really believed had to be by whoever drew the Rocky & Bullwinkle series. A quick Google search didn't retrieve any results except for a vague reference to the animation being outsourced to Mexico and, since we had a lot of talking, walking and beveraging to do, we let it drop.
Now back to November 2019 with Mom. The brochure cover art and the typography immediately caught my eye, just because I love so many MCM things. I opened it and started to read the “about the artist” blurb. Imagine my surprise when I came to this sentence:
So this guy, Joe Montell, did Rocky and Bullwinkle! In Mexico. And Mom could have bought one of his tapestries!
What a bit of serendipity! (And I'm sure the Rocky and Bullwinkle writers would appreciate this, too. But that's a post for another day.)
And the shower curtain design was by this artist, Olle Eksell. How his style and Joe Montell's were so similiar is another mystery.
Anyway.
Mr. Montell passed away in 2007 and he had a great career in art, as an animator and textile artist.
Links below are about him. I think it's just fascinating how our lives work out. Thank you, Joe. (And thank you Mom, and thank you Carol.)
https://yowpyowp.blogspot.com/2011/01/a-part-of-life-of-joe-montell.html
http://artofjayward.blogspot.com/
No comments:
Post a Comment