Joe’s Neighbours
- Publisher
- ECW Press
- Initial publish date
- Mar 2016
- Category
- Canadian, Landscapes
-
Hardback
- ISBN
- 9781770412996
- Publish Date
- Mar 2016
- List Price
- $24.95
-
eBook
- ISBN
- 9781770908703
- Publish Date
- Mar 2016
- List Price
- $18.99
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Description
A series of energetic and vivid portraits that capture the character and integrity of rural life
Outsider artist Mendelson Joe is a painter, activist, musician, and renowned “self-taughter.” But to the people living in the sparsely populated region west of Algonquin Park, he is also a neighbour. With his latest book, Joe commemorates his neighbours in a series of portraits whose subjects range from Canadian musical icon Hawksley Workman to the man who installed Joe’s woodstove.
In Joe’s Neighbours, we get a glimpse into the lives of people who have strayed from the urban grid, and in Joe, we meet a “pathological painter” who is engaged with his community. Viewed through Joe’s idiosyncratic lens, rural Canadian life comes alive, and we meet a hub of artists, activists, and offbeat characters who truly embody Joe’s vision of neighbourliness.
About the author
Contributor Notes
Mendelson Joe was initially known (then, as Joe Mendelson) as part of McKenna Mendelson Mainline, an early 1990s blues band best-known for their album Stink. From the mid-90s on, Joe developed as a painter. He was captured in the biography Alien: The Strange Life and Times of Mendelson Joe, written by Nadia Halim. His paintings have been widely collected and many are reproduced in a series, Joe’s ____. Joe died in February 2023 at the age of 78.6. A tribute evening was held March 28, 2023 and featured 18 writers, singers, friends, and assorted riffraff. 10-4.
Editorial Reviews
“Mendelson Joe’s latest portrait collection is fascinating and endearing, displaying a talent for both painting and writing, while proving that even the simplest of interactions can brighten the lives of those around us.” — Scene Magazine
