mariposa grove

Atlas Obscura gives us a fine introduction to the life and extensive portfolio of Uruguayan-born cartoonist and cowboy Joseph “Jo” Jacinto Mora (*1876 - †1947) who lived among the Navajo and Hopi and shared his experiences of California in multiple formats.
During his most productive period, Mora and his family resided at the large art colony in Carmel-by-the-Sea but had an established his talent at art schools in New York and Boston and in several Massachusetts publications. An avid writer, photographer, sculptor and muralist, Mora solidified his reputation as the “Renaissance Man of the West” and we found his series of highly detailed and sometimes idiosyncratic maps and charts (here’s quite another topographic depiction of the Golden State)—commissions of Works Projects Administration—to be particularly appealing celebrations of the grand and quirky and encouraged us to learn more about his wide-range of works.