The story below is from our September/October 2024 issue. For more stories like it, Subscribe Today. Thank you!
Every objet d’art in this couple’s home is a pleasant memory of a lifetime of love and old-fashioned fun.
Taylor Reschka
The morning room, where Judy enjoys her morning coffee and magazines, is full of Ross’s art and art they collected on their travels.
Judy and Ross Arkell met at The Detroit Society of Arts and Crafts as young people full of artistic ideas and passion. Their shared creativity sparked romance, and they married in 1960. They enjoyed 62 years of wedded bliss until Ross passed away in 2022. From Michigan to Virginia, they created and acquired an eclectic collection of art. Their memories live on through their own art, the art of friends and other treasures they spent years collecting.
Taylor Reschka
Making a Living as an Artist
Judy and Ross spent their young married years in Michigan, where Ross worked for General Motors. He was a design sculptor, making full-size models of cars years before they were sold to the public.
This work connected the Arkells with fellow creatives, as many of Ross’s colleagues were originally trained as potters. Working for GM allowed them to transfer their ceramics skills and get their potters’ urge out by moving their hands in similar ways. Judy explains, “A lot of people who work in the manufacturing industry are very creative but need to feed their families.”
Most GM modelers maintained a home studio, and Ross and Judy consequently acquired many pieces of the salt-glaze pottery in their home by shopping at them.
Another perk of Ross’s day job was that it allowed him to gather the scrap wood that was left over from making full-size cars. He hand-carved and glued pieces together to make model vehicles, such as a red car in their dining room he named “Dr. Detroit.” He also made an airplane named “Norwegian Air Stream” with a little doll inside to represent Judy’s partial Norwegian heritage.
The Heart of Their Art
Judy has always enjoyed painting still lifes and making art for art fairs at local schools. Lace pillows, baby clothes and dolls that she made out of scraps and once sold at the fairs now decorate the home. She describes her motivation in creative pursuits as “a desire to create something nice-looking.”
But Judy sees Ross’s approach to art as driven to have a deeper meaning. Ross grew up in Chicago during the Depression and “saw how hard people had it.” She notes that “if you’ve had an easier life, you’re not always so concerned with the underdog.”
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Antique clothing, portraits from the 1900s and folk art decorate the living room.
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The pottery on top of the cabinets is from Ross’s time at GM. The glassware is from antique shops. Judy says, “I bought it because it’s nice looking and I use it for desserts when I have friends over.”
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The dollhouses against the wall of the living room are from the Depression era. They were likely homemade Christmas gifts. The turquoise cat is one of Ross’s sculptures.
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The quilt hanging above the bed is a “crazy quilt” from 1880. It’s made of silk and velvet and features decorative stitching done by hand.
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Because Ross didn’t have an easy childhood himself, he wanted things to be better for other people. One of his core life beliefs was that “people should be kinder to each other.” Time and time again, Judy describes her late husband as “an honorable person” whose art sometimes reflected his tender-heartedness towards the downtrodden.
White Lightning
Taylor Reschka
Other times, as with his shape painting “White Lightning,” Judy says Ross wanted to “just have fun.” (Shape paintings reflect the shape of the object being depicted rather than a regular rectangular or square canvas.) The title of this piece refers to moonshine and its fascinating local legacy.
The star of “White Lightning” is an advertising emblem that harkens back to a time when glamour girls were used in old-fashioned campaigns. Her facial expression is intense, predatory animals are around and behind her, and dusk falls on the Appalachian forest in the background.
Boones Mill was the moonshine capital of the world in the 1920s and 30s. Observers of this piece can consequently easily imagine White Lightning’s plans for the evening; she appears capable of driving backwards down hairpin roads, as some of the gutsier moonshine runners did, to outrun the police.
Judy says Ross was attracted to the idea of “glamorizing” this piece of local history because they knew people in Michigan often crossed the Detroit lake to obtain alcohol from Canada during the Prohibition because alcohol wasn’t outlawed there. Bootlegging was a victimless crime that wasn’t really hurting anyone, and moonshine running made some bootleggers into millionaires during The Great Depression. The wealth generated and essentially harmless nature of the crime made it easy to romanticize.
Effortless History Lessons
In addition to painting bits of local lore, the past decorates the Arkell’s home in the form of antiques. Judy describes the ones they have collected over the years as a “painless way to learn history.”
Taylor Reschka
One piece of history that now hangs on their kitchen wall is a set of match holders. At the turn of the 19th century, gas ovens didn’t have a pilot light. They had to be lit with a handheld match, so match holders were a popular kitchen item. The ones in the Arkell’s collection are a mix of tramp art, tin and wood that they collected at flea markets because Judy “just thought they were beautiful.
In their “morning room,” where Judy and Ross enjoyed breakfast together each morning before his passing, hangs a French funeral wreath, or mourning wreath.
These Couronnes de Mortuaire were made by nuns and placed on stones in cemeteries. They typically contained a beaded display of flowers and leaves called an immortelle, meaning everlasting. Bead-wrapped metal framing held everything in place.
Twig furniture also offers a history lesson. Original twig furniture dates back to ancient times, but Judy’s collection is from the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. Artisans twisted and notched pliable wood to make chairs, tables, doll furniture and clocks.
While some craftsmen sold their twig art to people in urban areas, others had more immediate needs. Judy heard this story when purchasing twig art at a flea market: people who didn’t have a home would make a twig table or rocking chair in exchange for meals and a few nights sleeping in someone’s barn, probably from the turn of the century through the Depression era.
Other Local Art
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Of course, Ross and Judy also painted the landscape and area around their home because that was a big part of what motivated them to move to Virginia.
Ross painted the golf courses and club house that define the neighborhood. He also made friends with the neighbors and sometimes asked to paint on their property with some humorous results.
Taylor Reschka
The stuffed deer head and horse tapestry came from an antique shop.
One time he asked a neighbor who didn’t realize he was an artist if he could “paint their house,” meaning make a painting of it. The homeowners misunderstood, thinking he wanted to apply a coat of paint to the exterior of the home and asked, “How much would it cost?”
Once the misconception was cleared up, Ross did indeed paint their house and other parts of the surrounding landscape beyond their own home. He didn’t have to walk far, because as Judy explains, “You don’t have to go very far to feel like you’re in complete wilderness” in Penhook.
The Arkells participated in the market gallery in downtown Roanoke for about 20 years and made many artist friends there, whose work also decorates their home.
Living & Loving Well
Over the years of their marriage, Ross and Judy used their artists’ eyes to collect treasures to make their home beautiful. The aesthetics are fun to observe, but they also honor the nature of their relationship. Judy reiterates the most important element of a long-standing marriage over and over, always with a smile, when she says, “We had a lot of fun.” At the end of a long and happy life, may we all say the same.
The story above is from our September/October 2024 issue. For more stories like it, Subscribe Today. Thank you!