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Mission
Helping creators to create.
Quite simply.
Vision
Create, publish, inspire - for those who make art their life.
Values
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Creativity: Creating with intention - publications, works, and resources for my peers.
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Integrity: Acting in accordance with my values, respecting the artists I collaborate with, being honest in every transaction.
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Sharing: Sharing the passion for art and creation. Sharing knowledge because what benefits an artist benefits everyone.
My cause
I firmly believe that by helping women, especially women entrepreneurs, we can help an entire community. That's why, every month, I invest 10% of my business profits in microloans for women around the world who want to start or grow a business. For this, I rely on Kiva.org.
So far I have been able to make more than 600 microloans. As soon as the repayments arrive, I reinvest them in new loans.
A simple way to make a small difference starting with just $25.
Visit Kiva.org
Have you ever had the impression
to be on your X?
I spent the first part of my professional life surrounded by books—first managing a school library, then publishing. I've always been drawn to entrepreneurship. But life sometimes forces us to question everything. When my family had to move over 4,000 km away, I closed the publishing house.
I now had more time. I resumed painting classes I had abandoned twenty years earlier. Art, like books and entrepreneurship, has always been a part of my life in one way or another. I started painting, became involved in an artists' group, eventually working in a gallery in Western Canada, and then in California.
Then, another move. Barely settled in our new city, the pandemic hit. My heart wasn't in painting. So I used that time to learn the basics of graphic design and explore surface pattern design. A year of classes, experimentation, and created collections—and I had found something that reconciled my love of art, organization, and entrepreneurship.
But a whole new world lay before me, and it was very easy to get lost in it. I needed a plan, tools. And what does a librarian do when she needs information and organization? She looks for books. I didn't find many. So, like a good former editor, I created the tools I needed—and decided to share them with my colleagues.
One last move finally brought me back home to Montreal. Since then, I've felt completely at home. Absolutely. Painting has returned, stronger than ever. So has publishing—books, notebooks, and now this time in the form of a magazine, Art & Surface, born from the desire to tell this world from the inside: the practices, the questions, the realities of those who make art their life.
What I love about publishing is the feeling of contributing to the development of others, my peers. Sharing what I know, and also learning every day.
What I love about art is freedom. Creating imperfect images like life, choosing colors according to the emotion of the moment, expressing without words.
What I love about entrepreneurship is also the freedom — choosing my projects, changing my path, being in control. And helping others to be the same.
Manon Jodoin
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