{"id":94504,"date":"2023-01-14T03:30:00","date_gmt":"2023-01-14T12:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/he-really-lived-his-life-by-a-different-set-of-rules\/"},"modified":"2023-01-14T03:30:00","modified_gmt":"2023-01-14T12:30:00","slug":"he-really-lived-his-life-by-a-different-set-of-rules","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/news\/he-really-lived-his-life-by-a-different-set-of-rules\/","title":{"rendered":"‘He really lived his life by a different set of rules’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t\t\t\t
While Michael Orelove moved away from Juneau over 15 years ago and passed away earlier this month, his artwork left a lasting legacy in the capital city that can still be seen today.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
Orelove, who was behind many beloved community projects died on Jan. 3, peacefully in his sleep at the age of 80, according to his son Jonathon Turlove. In Juneau, Orelove was responsible for the map of the United States on Merchants Wharf, the Hurff A. Saunders Federal Building’s 100-year time capsule, and the planet walk at Twin Lakes. Close friend Joyanne Bloom said that while his warm presence and creativity will be missed, his projects will live on for years to come.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
“I benefited a whole lot from knowing Michael,” Bloom said. “He was a real asset to the community for sure, he was always lighting things up. He was just a guy that was out there and was fun. Very unconventional, he was a big guy with a big heart and a big presence.”<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
Courtesy Photo \/ Jonathon Turlove\n Michael Orelove poses with one of his many annual 20-year time boxes. In addition to creating his own time capsules, Orelove was responsible for Juneau’s time capsule located at the Hurff A. Saunders Federal Building.<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
Originally from the Budlong Woods neighborhood in Chicago, Orelove was a Juneau resident for 34 years, from 1972 to 2006. After serving in the Army, he met his first wife Fran and together they soon had their only son Jonathon Turlove. Turlove said when he was four his parents divorced and it was at that point that his father decided to move to Juneau at the invitation of his sister Merle.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
According to Turlove, it was in Juneau where his father’s creativity really blossomed. Examples of this range anywhere from rib dinners on the floor while eating out of troughs, birthday pie fights inside Turlove’s room, hiking the Chilkoot trail in a tuxedo, a gorilla suit nailed on his office wall in protest of real taxidermists, withdrawing thousands of dollars for a game of Monopoly, or even nailing wood framing to the wall to create picture frames for friends to make paintings directly on the wall. After retiring as a budget analyst for the department of public safety at the age of 55, Turlove said that’s when the bulk of his creative projects started to take shape.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
Turlove said his father’s many projects are likely to stay in the community’s memory mostly because of how often Orelove went out of his way to make the community a part of those very projects. For instance, Orelove’s 2004 Merchant Wharf’s map of the United States was made with 50,000 nails, and Turlove said he could remember tourists asking his dad what he was doing and after explaining it was an art project, Orelove would invite them to hammer in the nail for their hometown.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
“They’d say they were from Omaha or some place like that and my dad would say, ‘Okay, you want to put in a nail for Omaha?’ So, he’d get tourists to pound a nail in and sort of be a part of that. I think that’s what really got him excited, seeing the joy that other people had in participating in something that maybe that hadn’t ever been involved with,” Turlove said. “He just really liked giving people that kind of experience.”<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t
Orelove was also responsible for the large tide gauge at the floatplane dock at Merchants Wharf as well as the sundial near the Mount Roberts Tram. According to Turlove, there’s also a secret community project in Juneau that Orelove never publicized, which is located along the vertical boards that form the waterside edge of the Alaska Steamship Dock. Turlove said that it’s in this location where his father did another planet walk made entirely out of nails. The nails form the first letter of each of the planets, and the distance between each planet is the correct relative distance between the real planets.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t