Village Squire, 1976-09, Page 5Jo Manning would rather draw
than talk about drawing.
Using etching, Jo Manning turns out about 75 copies of each of her prints.
If she had her way, Jo Manning would
rather let her art speak for itself, and not have
to talk about it. Words, you see, are hot the
tools she wants to work with. She makes that
. clear when you talk to her as she stumbles in
frustration because she can't find the words
she wants to explain her complicated
thoughts.
But her etching and pencil drawings speak
eloquently for her in a way words could never
tell. They show a skill and feeling that have
made her work part of over 20 public
collections across Canada as well as many
private collections.
While her art is reaching into the
mainstream of Canadian art circles, Jo would
just as soon be out in the country at her farm
near Londesboro. Though she maintains a
home and studio in Toronto, she spends as
much time as possible in the country.
"The country has always influenced my
work," she says. Like a growing number of
artistic people she finds the rural atmosphere
important to her work. She tells the story of
a musician she knows who lives in
Newfoundland who said he had to get into an
isolated area so that he could just get back to
what turns him on.
It's been two years now since she acquired
the old farmhouse east of Londesboro, but for
many neighbours, about the first time they've
had a chance to see her work came this
summer when she took part in the art show at
the Blyth Summer Festival. They got to see
the very realistic, intricate style she employs.
She works mostly as a printmaker in intaglio
or etching. It involved making a metal plate
with a limited number of prints being run off.
It's one of the oldest forms of printing.
She begins with a zinc plate coated with
wax. Using a sewing needle, she scratches
throueh the wax coating much as one would,
draw with a pencil. ween she has made the
picture she wants, she pours acid on the
plate. ThP wax protects the areas of the plate
that will be white while it eats away the areas
exposed by the needle, leaving fine lines in
the metal.. The wax is then dissolved away
leaving only the grooved metal
In the printing process, ink is applied to the
plate and rubbed off all areas but the lines
which hold the ink. A small hand press is
used then to push plate and paper (a special
art paper which is wetted before printing)
together and imprint the image on the paper
There aren't many people doing etching in
Canada, Jo says, but there are many good
artists among those who do, people like
Walter Bachinski of the University of Guelph.
Alan Weinstein of Teeswater and John Putahl
of Windsor and several other: in Toronto
VILLAGE SQUIRE/SEPTEMBER 19-6 3