Jacobs, Karen

About the Artist

“Until the summer of 1991 my life was full of family and work, with little time for other pursuits. As a Pediatric Occupational Therapist for more than 20 years, I assisted children with learning and motor deficits to succeed in the life skills and activities of daily living that were so challenging for them to accomplish. I often used artist’s tools and materials during therapy sessions.

That summer, almost on a whim, I enrolled in a beginning drawing class at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. I had always had an interest in art, but never pursued it, and thought it would be a fun experience. It turned out to be so much more. The drawing experience and classes at the Museum School focused on process and seeing, elements that I used when working to assist “my kids”. The tools I had used to enable others to move forward did the same for me. My experience at the Museum School inexplicably altered my life.

My passion to help the disabled turned inward. I discovered aspects of myself not tapped before. During the seven years leading up to my graduation from the Museum School in 1998, my focus shifted from others inward. The focus became sharing myself by making art.

Finding my voice through art has been an unexpected journey. My artistic voice now takes form in abstracted, pared down, sometimes brooding “Scapes” where I depict skies full of movement, reflected light on water or land, and the moodiness of deep wood’s visions.  There are times of quietude, times of frenzy, times of darkness, and times of effusiveness. These “Scapes” express how everything seems to stay the same, and yet, from minute to minute / hour-to-hour / day to night important and inexplicable life moments can happen. They are metaphors for the ephemeral emotional moments that occur in real time.

On a cold snowy day about three and a half years ago my husband and I moved from the Boston area to the Berkshire Hills of Massachusetts.  I know that being surrounded by such beauty is reflected in my work. Hopefully the viewer can see and appreciate my vision.”

Artist Statement

My Muse – moving skies, open waters, mountains, sunrise, sunset, natural beauty.

My Vision – transforming “ordinary” places into personal metaphors.

My Intent – to capture the ever-changing emotional moments life brings.

My Obsession – to work in series, with one piece shaping and informing another.

My Hope – moving the viewer in unexpected ways.

Exhibited in Good Purpose Gallery June 28, 2017 – August 7, 2017.