JOANNE ISAACS 

Sadly, Joanne Isaac died November 18, 2017

September 13, 1993 by MICHELE MORGAN, The Morning Call

Art degrees from the renowned Parsons School of Design and Yale University didn't figure into the development of Joanne Isaac's ultimate artistic niche. Although Isaac said she has "put her foot in a lot of pots" in the realm of fine arts, etchings are her love and livelihood.

Isaac not only composes her etchings but also handles the entire process: framing, selling, shipping and gallery exhibitions. At one time she had her own art supply business where she designed, produced and sold art supplies including easels, portfolios, display racks, aprons and other supplies.

Today, with assistant Susan Barnes to handle framing, Isaac keeps the studio in her Applebachsville farmhouse running in what seems to be a flawless manner.

Isaac's etchings, and the artwork of others whom Isaac admires, line the walls of the studios in her home and the adjacent barn. Isaac can be found in her ink-laden apron completing her etchings which most times she begins at various sites with her plates and etching pencil.

Isaac said she enjoys the business aspect of her work and likes the contact with people. "I'm not a party person," she said. "I don't have lunch with the ladies.

"We're an art family," said Isaac, who noted that her father was in design and her mother was an artist. Isaac's 88-year-old aunt is also an artist.

So art seems to be in Isaac's blood. She began drawing in kindergarten in her native Brooklyn, N.Y. Isaac brought her kindergarten sketch home to her mother one day who said, "Oh, look at this tree blowing with the wind through it. This is beautiful." As a child, Isaac said, she simply liked the picture because she enjoyed doing it.

But Isaac believes that it wasn't just her natural artistic leaning that has enabled her to produce the work she does today.

When asked how long it takes to produce an individual etching, Isaac said, "58 years. It took 58 years of experience to do (etchings) in a manner that might seem fast to somebody else." In some cases, Isaac can complete etchings in what might seem like no time at all, start to finish. But others she works on for years: "I'll put a plate away, and come back to it."

While at Yale in the mid 1960s, Isaac had her first child and she yearned to do something beyond motherhood to gain personal satisfaction. So she delved into her work with watercolors and ink drawings.

But it wasn't until 1968 when her husband, whom she met at Yale, bought a small press, and Isaac took an interest in etchings. Isaac said after purchasing the press, her husband bought several books on the art of etching. "I always did well with pen and inks," she said. "So it was an easy transition to go from a crow quill pen to etching. The (similar) graphic quality came across."

A book on the trials and tribulations of combing the hair of her daughter -- who never wanted her hair combed -- was Isaac's first etching project. Since that time, she has worked a minimum of four days a week and has etched an endless array of subjects, all on handmade paper imported from France.

Some of her subjects include: a series on one-room schoolhouses; fly-ties while on a fishing trip with her husband in Montana; "Tom Thumb's alphabet," an etched alphabet taken out of a 16th century book; perfume bottles; various flowers; a coffee collection; and a teapot series.

Among her latest innovations are etchings of wine bottles. Isaac tried to do only one-of-a-kinds in her wine bottle etchings and said a typical etching of this type costs about $195. Isaac's wine bottle etchings were a spin-off of a food series she began in France.

"I came with etching plates in hand to do etchings of the buildings of Italy and it snowed the whole time," said Isaac. "We spent most of our time in restaurants so I decided to etch the art of eating."

Isaac's success by default due to heavy snow became very popular and she concentrated on food etchings for a while and showed her work at a hotel/motel show in New York City.

Isaac's coffee etchings hang in a coffee store in Stroudsburg. Scenes of Princeton, Yale and Lehigh universities are also part of Isaac's etchings collection along with etchings of historic buildings in Doylestown, Trumbauersville, Springtown and Frenchtown, N.J. Isaac said she likes to etch historical things. "They hold a lot of value," she said.

After the death of her father, she recently began a series of her childhood home to preserve the moments of her youth, such as sitting on the couch with her dog. She said the couch in her parents' home was more than just a couch; many things happened on that couch. Isaac's etchings capture those moments.

Isaac tries to personalize all of her work. "Sometimes you need a certain bit of information, a certain length, a certain width to do what's commercial ... But I always try to put something of myself into it."

But Isaac's artwork is not the only thing that is important to her. "You need to be a complete person," she said. "You have to be real, a mother, a wife ... and you have to be careful to know what you've bitten off."