I meet Jo at the Leicester Museum and Art Gallery and head to my favourite room there: the German Expressionism gallery on the first floor. We pause by the wonderfully expressive prints from Kathe Kollwitz and sculptural forms of Ernst Barlach.
Jo speaks of her love for the black and white that reveal so much about the emotions of the mark-making rather than aiming for the aesthetic beauty. Looking later at her own prints, it is evident how much this movement has influenced her work, although other more contemporary work fascinates her too.
I am grateful to Jo for introducing me to the exceptional work of the Northumbrian artist Rebecca Vincent, who takes monotype printing to a new level (see https://www.rebecca-vincent.co.uk) and reveals her process in a series of videos of her printing process.
Art was a subject at school where Jo felt she could lose herself, without pressure, and her experiments with art grew from there. Jo mentions Cindy Sherman’s concept-driven portraits inspiring her to take her own risks with more challenging photography and large-scale screenprinting during her A’level years, supported by an inspirational teacher who embraced her big ideas, to the extent of adopting an approach she championed and started to put his own work on walls around the school.
Coupled with visual arts at University, Jo also studied English literature and found affinity with the work of Dickens and ideas of physiognomy and continued exploring the concepts of internal and external beauty and character in people as she developed her studies of art and literature at University, influenced by Frida Kahlo among others.
As a school teacher for more than 10 years, and now working on a freelance basis in the creative sector, Jo does not hide her passion for sharing the process of mark-making. Whether sketching in the indelible medium of biro, continuous line drawing, or the physical tearing of collage, she encourages the creation of works full of noise and chatter.
The ‘chatter’ of lines is most evident in Jo’s portrait work. Echoing her earlier explorations of self, she seeks to capture moments of downtime and respite with the honesty of an expressionist, rather than elevate the poised and the beautiful.
Her love of nature, light and shadow, and a deep affinity with trees is evident in the works she has brought along to the gallery to show me and her high regard for the expressive style of Rutland-based printmaker and illustrator Angela Harding (https://angelaharding.co.uk) who captures birds and other local creatures in wild and often windswept landscapes. Jo’s passion has been fuelled by trips to the coastal scenery of her grandfather in the West of Ireland and journeys to Cambodia and many other countries in her earlier life.
We talk more about Jo’s love of nature, its beauty and its harshness; the shapes cast by a winter sun; waterfalls and rocks; the strength and destructive force of wind; the shadows. It is here that Jo reveals that she has a progressively deteriorating eye condition. Although this has affected how she perceives light and brings with it a halo effect to her vision, this is something she is now embracing in her art.
For Jo, making is as important as the finished piece – and every one of her workshops is a testament to this belief. She teaches skills to imbue movement and loves to see people grow by instilling them with confidence to go forward with their art. Art is growth, she says, and the interpretation is the most exciting part. She talks of ‘happy mistakes’ and sees printmaking as a site of experiment where the mistakes made can inform your decisions going forward.
Jo Shearer is a regular contributor to the programme at Deepwell Arts in both Leicester and Oxford. I can’t wait to learn more about her printmaking techniques at the next workshop – come and join me https://deepwellarts.com!
