• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to secondary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Home
  • Current Issue
  • Archives
  • Advertise
  • Contact

Carmel Magazine

The Lifestyle Magazine of the Central Coast

  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Food & Wine
  • Music
  • Golf
  • Cars
  • Subscribe to Carmel Magazine!

Monterey County’s Prolific Artist Unveiled

November 1, 2013 by Renee Brincks

Carmel drivers pass the statue at Camino Del Monte and Alta daily, often without recognizing its connection to some of Monterey County’s most storied structures, sculptures and works of art. Joseph Jacinto “Jo” Mora created the oak shrine to Father Junipero Serra, who established nine California missions, at the request of Pebble Beach Company Founder Samuel F.B. Morse in 1922. Two years later, Mora’s now celebrated Serra monument was unveiled at the Carmel Mission.

Peter Hiller, an All Saints’ Episcopal Day School art teacher and collection curator for the Jo Mora Trust, has promoted that sculpture, and the artist’s other illustrations, paintings, books and maps, for 17 years. He’s especially excited about a pair of rare Mora holiday murals headlining a Sunset Center event this December.

“It’s important for people to have a sense of this artist who lived in the community where they live, and whose work they see on a regular basis,” Hiller says.

The Uruguayan-born Mora moved to the United States as a child. Before making his way to the Monterey Peninsula, he studied art and worked as a newspaper illustrator in Boston. His editors sent him to sketch developing news stories, and those drawings accompanied articles in the days before photography was standard. As Mora strengthened his graphics skills, he also created three-dimensional works with his father, a sculptor.

That versatility helped Mora earn a living solely through art. “Over the course of his career, his work was fairly evenly divided between two-dimensional and three-dimensional work. He was gifted at both,” says Hiller. “He was always hustling and looking for work, but by the same token, he was fortunate to have enough work coming his way that he was able to comfortably take care of his family.”

Mora eventually moved to Arizona and spent time living in Hopi and Navajo communities. His personal interactions and cultural explorations inspired pen-and-ink drawings, watercolors, sculptures, and a continued interest in the American West shaped many of his future art and writing projects.

Mora and his family came to Carmel in 1920, and his Carmel Mission cenotaph honoring Father Serra was dedicated in 1924. The artist reportedly considered the life-sized bronze monument, and a corresponding cross and altar, one of his most significant achievements. Locally, it’s one of his most well known, but other Mora creations remain on display throughout Monterey County. Some work hangs in the courthouse in Salinas. Mora also made decorative elements for King City High School’s auditorium as part of a 1930s Works Progress Administration project. In addition to the Mora Chapel Gallery at Carmel Mission and the statue at Camino Del Monte and Alta, the artist crafted clay-glazed figures now in the El Paseo Building courtyard in Carmel.

“If you look at those pieces and then look at the cenotaph at the Mission, you see three very different techniques. The feeling from the three pieces is very different, yet they’re all equally engaging and interesting,” Hiller says.

Mora also worked with Carmel Dairy, fashioning murals, menus, calendars and decorations in exchange for milk, butter and cheese. He created an exterior light sconce with two cows that still hangs on the former dairy building at Ocean and Mission. Mora made Christmas cards distributed by the business, too, and designed cards sent by his own family. Each features an intricate illustration that puts a playful spin on the holidays: animals on skis and ice skates, pine trees covered with snow, candles, carolers and more. Some have rhyming poems; some summarize the past year’s activities.

The Jo Mora Trust holds copies of many of those cards in its archives, along with a few holiday murals largely unseen by the public since the 1940s. Among them are one signed as a gift to Mora’s daughter, and another that advertises Mora’s Carmel map made in celebration of the season and sold for 50 cents. (Mora’s series of maps, or cartes, depicting national parks and various California cities, including one of Carmel-by-the-Sea, are among his most recognized pieces.) Two of those holiday murals are on exhibit during this year’s Sunset Center Holiday Open House, an event that leads up to the city’s evening tree lighting ceremony.

The venue’s development manager, Barbara Davison, believes Mora’s local ties make his murals a natural fit for the family-friendly celebration.

“Jo Mora had such vast experience as a California- and Monterey-area artist, historian, sculptor, painter, photographer, illustrator, muralist and author,” she says. “He used his art and his words to speak to the child as well as the adult in each of us.” Hiller hopes sharing these holiday murals with the community will bring new attention to the artist’s achievements.

When he introduces Mora’s varied work to others, he sees them walk away with a smile.

“I attribute that completely to him and the quality of his work and how engaging he was as a person,” says Hiller. “What he did in his lifetime was kind of overwhelming for one person.”

The Sunset Center Holiday Open House, featuring two Jo Mora murals, starts at 3 pm on Friday, Dec. 6. Visit www.sunsetcenter.org for more information. For details on Jo Mora’s work, or to order the Jo Mora’s Art in Public Places map that highlights where to find the artist’s public works, visit www.jomoratrust.com.

__mora4

From momentos in the family archives, it is certain that the Moras clearly enjoyed celebrating the holidays. This mural, in recognition of Christmas, is an outstanding example of their joy.

__mora3
Even an intricate image like this Christmas greeting card came easily and naturally to Jo Mora. His son, Jo Jr., always spoke with admiration about father’s artistic abilities.

__mora2
Jo Mora and his family had a deep affection for animals of all kinds. These woodland creatures were a continuing theme in many of Mora’s light hearted pieces. Jo was generous in gifting his children examples of his work, (this one, a gift, to his daughter Patty.)

__mora1
As Mora personified the animals in his drawings, it is not unlikely that he had family jokes in mind and was honoring his children.

Filed Under: Holiday 2013 Tagged With: Lifestyle

Primary Sidebar

CURRENT & PAST EDITIONS HERE

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Twitter

GUIDETOCARMEL

READ THE GUIDE HERE

Tags

Cars Food & Wine Golf Lifestyle Music surfing Travel

ForAdvertisers

  • ► Publisher’s Note
  • ► Mission Statement
  • ► Ad Specs
  • ► Advertise in Carmel Magazine
  • ► Media Contact
  • ► Full Media Kit

Secondary Sidebar

Archives

  • Spring 2025
  • Winter 2024
  • Fall 2024
  • Summer 2024
  • Spring 2024
  • Winter 2023
  • Fall 2023
  • Summer 2023
  • Spring 2023
  • Winter 2022
  • Fall 2022
  • Summer 2022
  • Spring 2022
  • Winter 2021
  • Fall 2021
  • Summer 2021
  • Spring 2021
  • Winter 2020
  • Summer 2020
  • Summer 2020
  • Winter 2020
  • Fall 2019
  • Summer 2019
  • Spring 2019
  • Winter 2019
  • Fall 2018
  • Summer 2018
  • Spring 2018
  • Winter 2018
  • Fall 2017
  • Summer 2017
  • Spring 2017
  • Winter 2017
  • Fall 2016
  • Summer 2016
  • Spring 2016
  • Winter 2016
  • Fall 2015
  • Summer 2015
  • Spring 2015
  • Winter 2015
  • Fall 2014
  • Summer 2014
  • Spring 2014
  • Winter 2014
  • Fall 2013
  • Summer 2013
  • Spring 2013
  • Winter 2013
  • Fall 2012
  • Summer 2012
  • Spring 2012
  • Winter 2012
  • Fall 2011
  • Summer 2011
  • Spring 2011
  • Winter 2011
  • Fall 2010
  • Summer 2010
  • Spring 2010
  • Winter 2010
  • Fall 2009
  • Summer 2009
  • Spring 2009
  • Winter 2009
  • Fall 2008
  • Summer 2008
  • Winter 2008
  • Fall 2007
  • Summer 2007
  • Spring 2007
  • Winter 2007
  • Fall 2006

Footer

Carmel Magazine is the quarterly lifestyle magazine for Carmel and the Monterey Peninsula, featuring the notable people and places, arts, food and wine, destinations, styles and events of Carmel and the Peninsula.

Address:
126 Clocktower Place, Suite 103
Carmel, CA 93923

Phone: (831) 625-9922
Fax: (831) 626-3613

Recent Posts

  • In Great Taste
  • A Grammy-Award Winner’s Home Hits All the Right Notes
  • Riding the Waves of Hope
  • A Driving Force
  • From the Bright Lights to Moonlit Nights

Search

Tags

Cars Food & Wine Golf Lifestyle Music surfing Travel

Copyright © 2025 Carmel Magazine · Carmel, California · Designed by BEAR★PRESS