Fabric
of Life, By Carol Hoffmann, West Yellowstone News, 09/01/06
Phil Morton was a tenured professor at the School of the Art
Institute of Chicago for fourteen years and had his own production
company there. He always spent summers in Montana and New
Mexico, observing and making video of the wildlife that was
his passion. In 1982, Phil decided to retire early, thinking
he'd be unable to climb the mountains when he was 65. He lived
in Big Sky at first, then settled in West Yellowstone, where
he found a natural affinity for hunting.
In April of 1992, he interviewed for the position of professor
of documentary videography at the College of Santa Fe in New
Mexico. In Santa Fe is where Phil met Barb Abramo. She was
coordinator of student services in the Moving Image Arts Department
at the time. Their attraction was sudden and mutual.
Phil didn't get the job, but he got Barb. They lived in Santa
Fe awhile, but Montana still beckoned, so they moved to West
Yellowstone in May of 1994.
Professional videographers and wildlife artists, Phil and
Barb spent much of their time together tromping around the
Yellowstone ecosystem. videotaping the wild critters, most
notably elk and buffalo. "Ruttin' Elk Ruttin' Buffler",
one of their projects, is available on DVD at the West Yellowstone
Library.
"Buffler Bo" is what Phil called himself. As he
said in an August 17, 1990 letter to the News, "It's
the original, oral, mountain man proper label for our plains
(Yellowstone) buffler."
"Phil believed in the spirit of the independent videographer,"
Barb says, "and when the Buffalo Field Campaign came
here to document the buffalo's plight, we welcomed them with
open arms and whatever technical expertise we could offer."
Hunting season always found Phil far afield. He bagged his
share of elk, deer, antelope and geese and kept the larder
well-stocked. Barb learned to butcher the game; "butcherin'
babe" he called her. With Barb's skill with a knife and
Phil's artistic creativity, few parts of a kill were not either
eaten or used in his eclectic wildlife art. Each time Phil
returned from a hunt there would be a drawing by Barb tacked
on the mud room door to greet him, and he saved them.
It was three years ago, on August 24, 2003, that Phil Morton
died, a victim of lung cancer. His premonition about climbing
mountains had been wise, he was only 58 when he died, but
he had climbed many Montana mountains.
After Phil died, Barb moved to a small trailer with very little
room for the accoutrements of their life, so she had to store
things at the homes of friends. And learn to get by without
him, and to heal.
In 2004, Barb began working on the idea of creating a quilt
to honor Phil and their life around hunting, using the playful
drawings he had loved for the quilt squares. "The theme
of the quilt was to pull myself together after Phil's death,"
she said, "when my life was so scattered."
The Tuesday evening knitters and crafters group at the library,
affectionately called "Stitch and Bitch", became
the workshop for barb's project during that winter of 2004-05.
The lighting in the library is excellent for craftwork, it's
comfortable and warm and the women keep each other company
while they work.
Barb had the drawings transferred onto fabric squares. She
embroidered them and sewed each square to the next by hand.
For the backing, she chose a purple flannel sheet because,
she said, "Phil so loved me in purple." She used
red satin for the edges top and bottom and purple cotton binding
for the sides, with snowflakes embroidered all around.
Every stitch she did lovingly by hand. It was a gentle healing,
"A comforter for my grief." she calls it.
"The only day since Phil died that I didn't wish he was
still alive," she said recently, "was last January
12th, when the buffalo went through the ice of Hebgen Lake
, he would've hated that."
That night, like all the others, Barb spent wrapped in Phil's
comfort quilt.
She remains a tireless advocate for the "buffler",
and all the wild creatures of the Yellowstone Ecosystem.
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