Date: Fri 13-Feb-1998

Publication: Bee

Author: DOTTIE

Quick Words:

Jean-Mann-Marni-Booth-Library

Full Text:

Gifts For Now And The Future: Pottery And Porcelain Artist Jean Mann Donates

Art To Library

BY DOROTHY EVANS

Jean Mann is a sculptor, potter and porcelain artist of talent and sensitivity

whose works have received critical acclaim here and abroad.

One of her favorite pieces is a miniature porcelain dragon boat that measures

only two and a half inches from "nose to tail," as Ms Mann describes it.

It has been recognized by American curators at the Smithsonian Museum as well

as in the Orient, where the ancient art of miniature porcelain carving is

greatly revered.

Though the dragon boat has been exhibited widely in Connecticut and New York,

it will remain in Ms Mann's private collection until her death, at which time

she has stipulated that it should go to the Cyrenius H. Booth Library as part

of its permanent collection.

"We are so delighted. They are wonderful," said Mrs Woycik of all three works,

the oil painting, the clay bowl and the miniature porcelain boat.

"I want them to stay in Newtown where they belong," Ms Mann said recently, as

she gave the bowl and the painting to Mrs Woycik on January 27.

As for the dragon boat, she is relieved to know that eventually it will be

seen and appreciated by many of the people who once knew the woman it was made

for, longtime Newtown Bee writer and editor, Marni Wood.

A Dragon Boat For Marni

Jean Mann said she sculpted the dragon boat in just three months during 1978,

the year after her friend died.

Her fond memories of Mrs Wood, and her associations with other Newtowners go

back a long way, she explained.

Although she is not a Newtown resident today, Ms Mann feels a close kinship

with the town because between 1964 and 1970, she rented a basement apartment

and studio off Laurel Road from longtime middle school teacher Jessica

Davidson.

During those "early years" she said she became acquainted with many town

residents who were artists or writers, including Mrs Wood and her husband,

Harrie Wood.

"They were wonderful people," Ms Mann said.

During the same period, she also met Fran Casman, a Newtown painter who lived

on Main Street.

Silencing A

Skeptical Curator

As an artist in carved porcelain, Ms Mann has been compared to such renowned

potter-sculptors as England's Josiah Wedgewood and Kaendler of the Meissen

factory in 18th century Germany.

When asked about the technique, she admits that working in miniature is

terribly exacting.

"Carving porcelain is like carving a piece of chalk," she said recently.

One could well imagine that a slip of the stylus would be ruinous, yet Ms Mann

insists that a "slip" is simply not something one allows to happen.

Using surgical scalpels and dental tools, the sculptor proceeds very

cautiously, she said.

"You brace yourself. And when you pray for help, you receive it."

As for why Ms Mann created a dragon boat for Mrs Wood, she said the idea just

seemed to come to her one night in a flash of inspiration.

"I sat up and there it was in 3-D right in front of my eyes," she said.

She knew that making a dragon boat was the perfect way to commemorate Marni

Wood, partly because "I felt that we were spiritually close and a dragon boat

is sometimes thought of as a conveyance for the spirit."

Also, as a young child, Marni had grown up surrounded by Oriental art

treasures. They were family pieces that, later in life, she frequently loaned

to Ms Mann for closer study.

"I even put Marni inside the boat. She's in the middle section and I gave her

an Oriental face that is only 1/8 inch high. That's her," Ms Mann said,

pointing to a tiny figure standing at the railing.

One interesting "Marni" story Ms Mann tells involves an incident that happened

shortly after she completed the miniature piece and sent a photo of it to the

National Palace Museum in Taipai, Taiwan.

Later in 1979, when Ms Mann visited Taiwan, she was taken aside by a museum

curator who had seen the picture.

"She reached into her desk and pulled out the photograph, saying `Who made

this?'

"I answered that I had. She could see that it was carved out of a single piece

of porcelain and she didn't believe it. So we talked about it for a long

time."

Other Art Works Donated Now

Works of art are like treasures, Ms Mann told Mrs Woycik, and as such their

eventual destination should be ensured.

When she is gone, Ms Mann does not want her valued pieces to be lost or

unappreciated, and she described a recent experience that led her to take

early action.

"I have a friend who died at 88 or 89, but had still not gotten around to

finding an appropriate home for his dearest possessions. It was tragic to see

what finally happened to them," said Ms Mann.

She mentioned that a large Dumpster had appeared on the scene, and "I saw a

whole bunch of things that he had cared about thrown in as though they had no

value," she added.

For that reason, though she is only 70 and enjoys good health, Jean Mann has

lately begun to sort through her things.

In addition to willing "The Marni" to the library, she has given the library

two other pieces for display right now -- a ceramic bowl that she made in the

1960s, and an oil painting done by Fran Casman.

The bowl was fired with Newtown clay, Ms Mann said, calling it the last of a

batch of light manila-colored clay that she had dug up and strained through

"several silk stockings."

"You have to get rid of stones and sand. There was only so much left and this

was the end of it," she said.

Ms Mann has been asked not to divulge the source of the Newtown clay, but she

did say that "one finds it at the bottom of a hill near water" and "it's a lot

of work to strain it."

"Dot Wenblad's children sieved it for me. They're adults now," she added as an

aside.

The darker material used in the bowl is called Jordan clay.

"It came from an area being dug up in New Jersey that they were turning into a

parking lot," she said.

The two clays have been mixed together or marbleized to make a beautiful

swirling pattern.

"I almost like the bottom better than the inside," Ms Mann said as she turned

the bowl over in her hands before handing it over to Mrs Woycik.

Casman Oil Painting

Another of Ms Mann's gifts to the library was a painting by Newtown artist

Fran Casman. It depicts a wildflower meadow done in soft greens and pastels

and includes a tiny orange-colored ant painted at the bottom right.

"Oh ant, crawl up Mount Fuji, but slowly, slowly!" the caption states.

Ms Mann shared a story surrounding the painting by how she got to know Fran

Casman and acquired the painting.

"Fran had made some plates for her children about the Owl and the Pussycat and

asked me to fire them for her. When she wanted to pay me, I said, `Instead,

let me have a painting.'

"I thought it shouldn't get lost," she said of the painting, adding, "It's

very good to get things into the public domain."

"I feel good about giving these things to the library because then I can come

and see them," she added.

Books By Jessica Davidson

Jean Mann has also given the library a number of books on semantics and math

written by Newtown author and teacher Jessica Davidson.

"She taught sixth to eighth graders back in the days when you taught all the

subjects," Ms Mann said.

The books by Jessica Davidson for the library's Newtown Authors Collection

include Mind in a Maze, Mind-Boggling Brain Benders, The Square Root of

Tuesday, Is That Mother in the Bottle?, What I Tell You Three Times Is True,

How To Improve Your Grammar, and How To Improve Your Spelling and Vocabulary.

Today, Jean Mann lives in New Fairfield where she works on carved porcelain in

her pottery studio known as "The Kick Wheel."

Her pieces are included in the permanent collection of 12 museums including

the Smithsonian, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Everson in Syracuse,

N.Y., as well as in the Museum Ha'artz in Tel Aviv, Israel.

Ms Mann has created a research library of Oriental art that, she said, would

also eventually end up at the Booth Library.

"I have used the books for my own studying," she said, adding she never

formally studied the art of porcelain sculpture with anyone else.