Longtime artist Mendelson Joe dies at 78 after living with Parkinson’s disease

EMSDALE, Ont. – Mendelson Joe, a singer-songwriter, longtime activist and artist whose works focused on political and social commentary, has died at the age of 78.

Joe’s wife, Karen Robinson, confirmed he died Feb. 7 at his home in Emsdale, Ont., north of Toronto, through Canada’s medical assistance in dying after being diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease more than five years ago.

In a self-penned obituary published on his website, Joe said Parkinson’s was a “dead end” for him and thanked Canada for allowing medical assistance in dying, adding it was a “sign of a civilized society.”

“Medically speaking, I’m shaking and rattling … the Parkinson’s interrupts my creative flow of writing, painting and making music to say the least,” wrote Joe.

Born Birrell Josef Mendelson in Toronto, Joe began his decades-long artistic career in 1964 and later teamed up with guitarist Mike McKenna to form the blues band McKenna Mendelson Mainline.

The two met after McKenna put out a newspaper ad looking for bandmates.

McKenna recalled his first phone conversation with Joe where he chastised McKenna for being so “naive” to put a call out in a newspaper.

“Nevertheless, there was immediate magic when we played the blues together, and we went on to be extremely close as both friends and collaborators,” McKenna said in an emailed statement.

The duo remained active until 1972 and reformed briefly in 1975.

Like many bandmates the two had differences over time, says McKenna, but he was happy to reconnect with Joe in recent years.

“Joe was a unique, talented and sensitive man, and he will be dearly missed.”

Starting in 1975, he turned his focus to painting, at first using discarded paints from the garbage.

His works made political and social commentary, with one of his most famous pieces depicting former prime minister Brian Mulroney with a backside for a face, as part of a series called “Liars.”

The artist participated in a hunger strike to protest construction of a nuclear plant east of Toronto in the 1980s.

Anne Hansen, an artist based in B.C., first met Joe during this time and would often join him while he protested the project. The two formed a friendship that spanned decades and provinces.

Joe rekindled Hansen’s childhood love of painting, encouraging her to take up the craft, ultimately changing the trajectory of her career, she said.

“He was like a foster parent to people who were looking for their place or for their calling. It was just natural for him to encourage people to do creative things,” Hansen said during a phone interview from her home in Victoria.

He prided himself on being a self-taught writer, painter, musician. “It’s the way I learn. I did the job,” he wrote in his obituary.

Authors Margaret Laurence and Margaret Atwood as well as astronaut Roberta Bondar were some of the well-known Canadians who sat for portraits throughout the years.

Later in his career he left Toronto — or “smogmopolis” as he liked to call it — for a home west of Algonquin Park where he painted scenic landscapes of forests, animals and the sky.

The desire to provide commentary and “unabashed disgust,” as his biography states, at the state of politics in the U.S. and Canada remained. He painted portraits of former prime minister Stephen Harper and former presidents George W. Bush and Donald Trump.

Joe went on to record thirty albums and he would later write several works of fiction, some unpublished.

Hansen was not surprised Joe chose a medically assisted death given the impact of his illness.

“When I first met him, he was always very clear about what would not constitute a quality of life, and that he would want to have some agency over how he died,” she said.

For a man who lived his life on his own terms he wanted the same dignity in death, Hansen added.

In his final note, his obituary titled “That’s It Folks” he left fans with one last message.

“You have to look and you have to listen. Please. Look and listen.”

— By Brittany Hobson in Winnipeg.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 9, 2023.

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