Jo Mora

Mora’s artistic gifts range over a wide variety of mediums, including drawing, painting, illustration, cartooning, sculpture, photography, map-making, and writing, their diversity being an amazing accomplishment for one person. Mora was born in Uruguay on October 22, 1876, moved to the eastern United States when he was a young child, and then, after attending art school and working as an illustrator and cartoonist in the Boston area, spent the rest of his adult life living and working in the western United States, with the last 27 years in Carmel and Pebble Beach, California.

In 1920, Mora moved to Carmel from the San Francisco Bay Area to work on what was to become his masterpiece – the Father Serra Cenotaph, in the Memorial Chapel in El Camelo Mission. Carmel priest Ramon Mestres commissioned Mora to create the bronze and travertine memorial, along with the cross and altar, that were dedicated on October 12, 1924.

Mora’s presence continues to be found in Carmel. Concurrent with his work at the mission, Mora carved the wooden oak Serra Shrine located at Camino Del Monte and Alta, as a commission for S.F.B. Morse, for what was to be the gateway to Morse’s residential subdivision – Del Monte properties (Pebble Beach). This Carmel landmark was dedicated on July 22, 1922.

Mora is probably best known publicly for the series of maps – or cartes, as he referred to them – that he created. These historically accurate, humorous, and collectable prints have entertained viewers for years. His homage to Carmel, the Carmel-By-The-Sea carte, was printed in 1942 and highlights much of the colorful history of the town.