Featured Artist Barbara Jacobs | Artsy Shark

Barbara Jacobs approaches art as an immersive experience, inviting viewers to step into layered compositions shaped by memory and exploration. View more on her website.

I grew up in a home with an artist father, immersed 24/7 in a world of color and creativity. For many years I was unaware that this was different from my young friends’ experiences. In retrospect, I can understand the depth of that environment. The effects are an inherent part of my own work.

My main artistic and personal influences while developing a personal style is having studied with very different yet amazing artists. At the University of California, Berkeley, I had the good fortune to study with the abstract expressionist Adja Yunkers and also with the now-iconic artist David Hockney. Both have been favorites over the years. My formal art education began at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Florence, Italy. It culminated in a BA from the University of Minnesota, with a focus on painting and printmaking.

Over the years I’ve been intrigued by a variety of artistic media. This includes painting, 3D work, printmaking, silverpoint drawing, photography, and collage. Inspiration comes through many sources, but never from an intentional concept. Nor do I limit myself to a topic. Rather, elements of travel, history, physics and nature are ever-present in the background, but not as distinctly conscious subject matter choices. In my essentially abstract work, you will see monoprints, collage, paintings, and photographs.

Typically, I work in series modality. When I start one piece, I’m often inspired to simultaneously extend the medium, color palette, or other style elements into contiguous pieces of similar or different sizes. I often use intricate detail or create an emotive dreamy atmosphere.

While it seems I have a disparate approach, each series has its own continuity. You’ll see work in various media. They may have a wide palette or narrow color range, large shapes or tiny ones, and sometimes even a form of automatic writing.

My newest work is inspired by materials or colors, or perhaps a fleeting glance that stimulates an idea I can translate into physical art. Internally, I view even a small work as if it is a huge piece, maybe even as a 3Dpiece in a field. In my mind, we could walk through as if it’s a sculpture, rather than a small 2D painting or collage. This is a result of my fascination with what I call “art-in-space” which is not just something we view on a wall. It’s a matter of being involved, not just remotely viewing.

I invite viewers is to become immersed in what they see, while exploring their own stories about the work. Typically, there’s a big difference from one person to another. That experience is my pleasure to provide.

Barbara Jacobs invites you to follow on Instagram.

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