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The first time I heard the name Jacobine Jones it was in connection with the Technical School where she was teaching sculpting. Little did I know in a few years I would be in her studio at Niagara on the Lake getting my first interview?
I did not have a car then so it was one transfer after another to get to her place in this quiet little village. The research I had done prior to meeting her did help to ask the right questions.
Since this kind of request is quite common the artists usually have a standard amount of reprints of what they have done up to the latest commission. Miss Jones was no exception and received me like she had known and understood what it was I was trying to do.
She knew I was an artist biographing as many sculptors as I could to make biographies and some history. I had studied under Miss E.Wyn Wood at the technical School under the same type of classes she was teaching.
It was not long before I got busy finding out more and more about her life and coming to Canada around 1930. She had the good fortune to do some work at the Guelph Agricultural College in Guelph, Ontario.
I cannot tell you how long I stayed but it was very fulfilling for both of us to get down to the possible publication I was determined to write.
I had gone over most of the architectural works that are on public display and added them to my collection. A trip to Ottawa produced some difficulty in taking the photos high up in the Bank, which had a marble front and green figures. The telephotos did not turn out very well but I got them just the same. I sure appreciated Miss Jones in letting me have her originals to get copied.
Glad to get all the other pieces copied and documented making it easier to biograph her commissions she got from Mr. Morani of Morani, Morris Braithwaite & Dick of Toronto. The number of commissions I have not tabulated yet and I do not think it that important at this point in time.
Her reputation just grew and grew as a very capable artist. You will see from all the photos just what I mean. I do not have access to the contracts that she signed if that was part of her arrangement.
I had heard that through some mismanagement she lost a lot of money and had to make radical changes in her later years. The prices of material went sky high as did the wages for her helpers (carvers) and masons for the Bank of Nova Scotia at the corner of Bay and King in Toronto. The 35-foot relief takes up the whole wall at the end of the main room. What a thrill to see the original sketches and then the finished product.
What can I say that has not already been said in her biography written a couple of years ago. There is no need for me to go over that material and repeat what were the facts. I am only sorry I spent so much time and money and not get the job of finishing what we had agreed to do by way of her biography. The whole thing just slipped away. Her records are in the Queen's University Archives in Kingston, Ontario if anyone wishes to see them. I got a quick glance one day when the biographer was busy gathering her information from the text. I gave her my address to contact me but it never happened.
I have my copy of the book and take it as just another record done with very little relationship to the history that was taking place when she was competing against other older established artists who sweated it out in an effort to get a fair deal.
Misses Loring & Wyle could of done the same job and why not. Miss Loring told me she" was not going to get an agent. Architects knew where she was and what she could do." So from 1930 to the late 50's no work was given to those who were established as sculptors accept Miss Jones.
My interest is in showing the works done and not why they were granted to this one or the other person. The use of sculpting to enhance a building site has undergone a lot of changes and the old artists had to accept this fact.
Just look at our climate and the building of fountains that work in the winter is unheard. It is enough to run in the summer. Even a reflection pool as shallow as it was had to be filled with earth and made into a garden. Small children could drown they said.
This happened with the Walter Allward memorial of Alex. MacKenzie at Queen's Park, Toronto.
So enjoy the photos that come from Miss Jones collection and mine attempts to get what no one ever tried to do during her whole life. If you want to learn something about any of our sculptors you would have to search like I have over forty years. It is here for you to see and use for the first time in art history.
My only wish is that Miss Jones will be happy with my trying to make her place known throughout the world. There is not history in writing up to this date 2004.
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