Jeff Arcel reflects on a life of art and music

Jeff Arcel has spent his life creating. He has seen success as an artist, musician and businessman, and said living life as all three — not to mention husband and father — for him, comes down to one thing:

“Because we can create things, we should create things,” he said.

Arcel was born and raised in Detroit. He first came to Montana with a group of friends when he was 16 years old, because they wanted to “ski on glaciers.”

“I still can’t believe my mom let us do it,” Arcel said, laughing.

After graduating high school in Detroit, Arcel and his girlfriend, Jean, packed up and moved to Montana. Forty-two years later, the pair are married with two grown children, living out their dreams under the big sky.

“We moved to Montana because we wanted to be in the mountains,” Arcel said. “We wanted to be closer to God.”

Arcel said that making the decision to live in Montana was easy, but the next step was figuring out how to make a living here.

“I think the best way to have a job is to invent it,” Arcel said. “There’s nothing you can’t learn by asking the right questions ... And why work your whole life to end up living where you want, when you can live there now?”

He said he spent the first decade here earning an “on-the-job MBA.” He did some forestry work in the 1970s, but in the early ’80s jumped at the chance to get into computers.

Arcel explained that he wanted to be an animator when he was younger, and was excited to “get my hands on these computers and computer graphics ... To me moving pictures were like moving paintings.”

And so his art and business collided in a sense, and in 1984 he began his own computer consulting company based in Whitefish, Applied Information Services.

The business took off, allowing Arcel and his family to build the life they wanted in the place they loved.

Arcel sold the company in 1997, and “kind of retired, but at the same time kind of failed at retirement,” he said. He now owns and operates Aeon Renewable Energy.

“It’s a very exciting time, and I’m overjoyed to be working in the renewable energy field,” Arcel said. “I get to design and build and create things, and be what I want to be.”

Designing and creating things come naturally to someone who always dreamt of becoming an artist. As a child, Arcel said he imagined a future career making visual art.

“I was really into comic books, really inspired by that type of art,” Arcel said.

As a young aspiring artist, Arcel said he was particularly influenced by Winsor McCay, Theodor Seuss Geisel (Dr. Seuss), Shel Silverstein and Arthur Rackham. He was lit up about the art in publications such as MAD Magazine, and remembers loving to take trips to the art museums in Chicago.

In school, Arcel used his skills working on sets for plays, building bulletin boards and contributing to the school newspaper. His work was picked up and published in various national magazines through his school years as well.

Ironically, he said despite his early success, he actually flunked out of his art class in high school.

“I was too busy skiing,” he said, laughing.

In addition to his interest in visual art, Arcel also decided to pick up the guitar when he was 12 years old. He said he figured many young people were picking up the guitar at about the same time, in large part because of the popularity of the Beatles.

He played music semi-seriously throughout his teen years.

“Music was good for meeting girls and being cool at parties,” he said.

Right after moving to Montana, Arcel put both his art and music on the back burner to focus on business. But it didn’t take long for the creative bug to bite again.

Arcel’s visual art has come to be an integral part of the community fabric in Whitefish. He has been the main artist and designer behind the Whitefish Winter Carnival artwork for many years. He also does work on concert and event posters and materials, frequently donates artwork to fundraising auctions and community projects, and has displays in multiple downtown businesses and galleries.

He is also a working musician, playing gigs around town as time permits.

“Music was always precious here,” Arcel said. “There’s more art and music here than ever before, and I want to be part of it.”

He described both his art and music as “eclectic and eccentric,” but added that “it really is about celebrating life.”

“I want to ... create work that reflects our own special culture here,” Arcel said. “Being in the moment is important, and realizing how special now is.”

Arcel said the creation and support of local art and music is more relevant now than ever, as everything seems to be getting more mass produced and “corporatized.”

“The essential things in our lives are reflected in our music,” Arcel said. “It reflects our culture and our tastes and what we are now as a community.”

As for the future, Arcel said he has no plans to slow down anytime soon.

“Ultimately, I want to die and be remembered as a ‘cool artist,’” Arcel said. “But until then, the painting is never done. I live the life I love and love the life I live.”

He said that he is most looking forward to whatever comes next for his family. He said he and Jean are “so in love with the Flathead Valley and northwest Montana, and just really proud to be part of the community.”

Their daughter Ashley, 25, is a writer in Bozeman; their son Jules, 22, lives and works in Whitefish (and is following in his father’s musical footsteps).

“It is really amazing to see the people they become,” Arcel said of his children.

Arcel said the best advice he could give someone who wants to be an artist, musician or entrepreneur, is to “go do it.”

“People talk themselves out of things, but it’s important for people not to be afraid to tap into their creative sides,” Arcel said. “Things are as good as you make them. We are made from the creator — Go, create.”

Entertainment editor Stefanie Thompson can be reached at 758-4439 or ThisWeek@dailyinterlake.com.