The latest from the Unheralded Artists of BC series, The Life and Art of Harry and Jessie Webb (Mother Tongue Publishing, 2014), is discussed by its author Adrienne Brown, the daughter of Harry and Jessie Webb, with Joseph Planta.

The Life and Art of Harry and Jessie Webb by Adrienne Brown (Mother Tongue Publishing, 2014). Click to buy this book from Amazon.ca: The Life and Art of Harry and Jessie Webb

Text of introduction by Joseph Planta:

I am Planta: On the Line, in Vancouver, at TheCommentary.ca.

Mother Tongue Publishing has a new book in their remarkable Unheralded Artists of British Columbia series: The Life and Art of Harry and Jessie Webb. Joining me now is the author, Adrienne Brown, who’s in a unique position to write this book, as her parents were Harry and Jessie Webb. I’ll ask her about her mother and father, and the circles in which they were a part of, an important group of artists, musicians, writers, and poets all working in the 1950s and 1960s. It was as it turns out quite a colourful, exciting time in the arts scene, and this book gives us a view onto that era. The book tells the story of two artists and two parents. It wasn’t a lucrative time, but a lot of fascinating art was created: oils, watercolours, pastels, as well as silkscreens, collages, and linocuts. It was a progressive and interpretative time in art, and Vancouver was by no means immune. Both Harry and Jessie were involved with the literary magazine, pm; which despite its short life is highly regarded and remembered. The jazz scene was something that Jessie and Harry were a part of, founding members in fact, of the Cellar Jazz Club which was at Broadway and Watson, just off of Main Street, which appeared in the National Film Board documentary, In Search of Innocence. I’ll ask Ms. Brown about how this book came about, the art that was created, and the exhibit at the West Vancouver Museum that opens this week, and that runs until 06 December 2014. Visit www.westvancouvermuseum.ca for information on Harry and Jessie Webb: Artists in Vancouver’s Jazz Age, as well as www.mothertonguepublishing.com. Adrienne Brown is a landscape artist and garden designer, and is the creator/editor of the Web Atlas of Landscape Architecture in BC. She is past president of the BC Society of Landscape Architects, and a fellow of the Canadian Society of Landscape Architects. Please welcome to the Planta: On the Line program, Adrienne Brown; Ms. Brown, good morning.

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