Chronology
JOAN DOBBS HENRY
Mid-Century Artist
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1930 – June 1948
Born Joan Barbara Dobbs on June 24, 1930, she made it clear from a very young age that drawing and painting were far more than a hobby, they were a part of her lifeblood. Born in San Francisco at the height of the Depression, she learned early on to make use of anything that provided a blank surface for her creations – discarded window shades, the thin paper cardboard that separate pairs of nylon stockings, scraps of paper – they were all blank canvases to her. As the Depression waned – somewhere in 1935 or 1936 – the little family of three moved south from San Fransicso to Bakersfield.
During her high school years – spent at East Bakersfield High School – Joan began to establish her firm conviction that Art would be her profession and took any and all opportunities to illustrate, create, and experiment with different forms of commercial art as well as fine art. Once she graduated from high school, it was no surprise that she was accepted to the prestigious California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland, California.
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September 1948 – 1949
California College of Arts and Crafts, as it was known from 1936 to 2007, was established to promote and elevate the status of “the practical arts” which included not just painting and sculpture, but ceramics, woodworking, jewelry design and making, photography, fabric design, etc. In 1948 it was the heart of what we think of now as Mid-Century Modern art and visual design. And Joan was smack-dab in the middle of this creative hotbed. Here, she had the opportunity to explore Art in all its forms. Her creativity was given free rein and flourished, resulting in paintings and drawings, jewelry, hand-carved wood, even gorgeous green steins created from 7-Up bottles that she fired, cut, and embellished with hand-tooled brass fittings flaunting her initials along with sturdy, sensuously curvy wooden handles. When her more out-going and adventurous art-student friends wanted to go to a beatnik-style party, Joan (the consummate introvert) would oblige their whims, lavishly painting their naked bodies which they then “wore” to these predictably debauched avante guarde gatherings.
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1950 – 1953
Sadly, the free-wheeling Northern California period was short-lived and Joan’s conservative parents declared “enough is enough, you’ve had your fun, now you need to come home and get a “real” job or get married.” You’d think such a declaration would at least embrace good jobs offered to her by the US Military establishment. After all, in post-WWII America, the Military was recruiting artists to help them promote the Military and capitalize on the pro-Military sentiment created by their WWII success. So in 1950, Joan was being heavily recruited by both the US Army and the US Marines. Officers came to the house to speak with her, make their offers. At each visit from these men in uniform, Joan’s father ran the show, stating a firm “no” as each offer was tendered.
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During this same period, Joan was also actively pursued by multiple prestigious fabric design houses and the world-renown Palace of Fine Arts Theatre. Why did her narrow-minded parents continue to believe that Art was only a hobby for women? Why did they forbid her to accept theses lucrative job offers? I suspect it was a matter of control. Unfortunately, the real answer will always be a mystery.
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However, this quiet, introverted, insecure but deeply committed non-conformist did get a “real job.” Joan took a job in Bakersfield – stifling her larger dreams of leaving this small, insulated town – as a commercial advertising artist at Valley Office Supply. She supplemented this income by also illustrating for other local businesses such as Judd’s and Harry Coffee’s – both fine clothing stores where she created gorgeous pen-and-ink renditions of lush fur coats, beautiful leather shoes and handbags, and stylishly rendered women in the latest fashions.
While drawing everything from stationary to priceless furs, Joan met Charles “Chuck” William Henry, a good looking divorced guy who dabbled in architectural drawing but never went anywhere with it. They got married in December 1952 – Joan mistakenly thinking she would finally be able to move out of her parents’ house. The surprise came when she discovered she was married to someone who preferred to live in the tiny mother-in-law cottage on the same property as her parents where he enjoyed free rent. Prince that he was, Chuck also insisted Joan get right back to work as soon as she delivered their baby in January 1954. Because of the stress at home and lack of support from her husband for her art, Joan got a job at Mercy Hospital as an admitting switchboard operator on the graveyard shift.
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1954 – 1963
Though she didn’t produce a great deal of art during her first year as a mother and second year as a wife, Joan’s natural gift could not be ignored. As soon as she ejected the fillandering, nay-saying husband, she continued her night shift job at the hospital and renewed her focus on her art. Some of her most beautiful and creative work was done during this brief period of time when she actually had more freedom and privacy than at any other time in her short life. Living in the little cottage at the back of the property, leaving her mother and father to live in the “big” house (2 bedroom, 1 bath!) at the front of the property, Joan explored her creativity, drawing in every free moment and experimenting with many different forms of expression.
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1963 – 1970
Unfortunately, stress and hardship find us all eventually. In 1963 when she lost her father and was now responsible for being the primary bread-winner for her mother as well as her child, Joan left the night job and took a position with Fedway department store as their advertising artist, once again in a position to have to draw whatever was being advertised. Jewelry, clothing, furniture, silver tea services, flatware, if they carried it, she drew it. But she also had an opportunity to “moonlight” doing fabulously creative in-store displays. One such featured an under-the-sea theme for the swimsuit promotion. For this, she gathered a bunch of torso mannequins that were lighted on the inside. Using tissue paper in every conceivable shade of blues and greens, accented with small splashes of bright yellow, she glued and layered the wet tissue all over the mannequins and then painted fish and seaweed and beautiful, diminutive mermaids. Once the lights inside these mannequins were lit, the effect was captivatingly whimsical, giving the effect of swirling undersea scenes where the occasional ray of sunlight (the carefully placed shreds of yellow tissue paper) captured the curve of an illusive undersea creature darting by.
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1971 – 1987
News Bulletin, Bakersfield Californian, Casa Moore
When Fedway closed, Joan went to work for the Bakersfield News Bulletin and sometime after that, the Bakersfield Californian - both local newspapers - where she was responsible for drawing and creating ads from start to finish. At some point, she began being known for her exceptional renderings of furniture and Casa Moore approached her to create detailed drawings of their key furniture lines. This led to the manufacturers reaching out to her directly as well. While she was employed as an advertising artist during the day, she also continued to exercise her love of display artistry at night, putting together lavish commercial displays for several clothing boutiques in Bakersfield.
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This was also a fertile time for her fine art. She was actively painting, exhibiting, and competing locally and around California. It was at this time that she began an active pursuit of an artist's rep - a fruitless task that led to a great deal of stress and humiliation. Sadly, not long after one particularly scathing lecture by yet another male art critic, Joan Dobbs Henry suffered a catastrophic ruptured cerebral aneurysm in December 1987. It was the end of her struggle to be who she was and never give in to who - or what - she was told she should be.