mtrimble_250

What is cowboy artist Jo Mora’s backstory?

 

Jan Ruysschaert

Brugge, Belgium


Joseph Jacinto “Jo” Mora was born in Uruguay in 1876 and immigrated to the U.S. as a child.  He studied art in New York and worked for a Boston newspaper as a cartoonist. Mora’s many skills included sculpting, painting, photography, drawing murals and writing.

He moved to California in 1903, and a year later, lived among the Hopi Indians in Arizona. He learned their language and photographed, sketched and painted their Kachina ceremonial dances. He later returned to California, where he primarily illustrated children’s books. He wrote the 1946 classic Trail Dust and Saddle Leather.  It includes his most famous work, “Sweetheart of the Rodeo,” which was later used as cover art for the same-titled album by the rock band The Byrds.  Mora died in 1947.

Related Articles

  • Joe Beeler painting

    In the 1960s, Joe Beeler rode his horse daily on a six-mile trip to his…

  • Eric H. Heisner’s, T.H. Elkman (Skyhorse Publishing, $22.99) gives insight into the life of Thomas…

  • cowboy

    To the Arizona cowboy, language has always meant imaginative mangling. Something isn’t just loud, it’s…