Artist of the Month

March 2007

Kathryn Jacobi

Santa Monica, CA

TAL: How and when did you start creating art?

KJ : I have been painting and drawing for as long as I can remember anything. My mother was trained as a portrait painter at the Art Students League, and watching her as a very small child, I wanted nothing more than to be able to make that sort of magic.

TAL: What media and genres do you work in?

KJ : Although I work mostly in oil on panel, canvas, or paper, I have worked in many media---watercolor,pastel, all drawing media--- and have spent a lot of my life as a printmaker (intaglio, monotypes, and lithography) and as a book illustrator. In the last few years, I've become a digital photographer, and have used Adobe Photoshop as an extention of my studio work.

TAL: Who or what are your influences?

KJ : I have been influenced by many artists, living and dead, as well as the literature I've read and the music playing almost constantly in my studio. Starting with the Northern Renaissance artists, particularly Durer, Holbein, Gerard David, and Cranach, I have studied and learned from artists within the humanist tradition: Rembrant, Gericault, The Spanish Masters (especially Velasquez, Goya, and Zurburan) and many of the painters of the 19th and 20th centuries. One of my great heroines is Kathe Kolwitz. My contemporary favorites include Anselm Kiefer, Vincent Desiderio, and Ron Mueck.

TAL: What was your inspiration for ""?

KJ : The Yellow Room was painted in 2005-6, a portrait of my god-daughter Ruby Rose. She is playing the violin; thematically I'm especially fond of this painting, as it shows the transmission of culture as a viable, thriving continuum.

TAL: Describe your creative process.

KJ : My creative process depends less on inspiration than a commitment to the process of working daily. I find that inspiration and growth come only in the process of the work itself. It takes a long time to resolve issues and learn where images are going to take me, and I allow my intinctive reactions full reign. If an image doesn't work, I'll try it again, and use the detritus and material to learn from and use as history for other paintings.

TAL: What are you working on currently?

KJ : I'm working on several major projects, as I usually do. Thr first is a very large (8'x18') triptych, the final piece in a series I've been working on for about three years, called Sleepwalking Through the Apocalypse. As well, I have an exhibit of my digital "hybrids" opening in April at the L.A. Center for Digital Art. Finally, I have a studio full of half finished large paintings and drawings of the people and surroundings of my life, more akn to the The Yellow Room than to the other groups.

TAL: What are your near/long term goals as an artist?

KJ : My goals are simply, as always, to continue to grow and gain in insight, skill, and compassion, both as an artist and as a human being.

TAL: Where can people view/purchase your work?

KJ : My website URL is: http://www.kathrynjacobi.com/. I can always be reached through the website, which also lists the galleries who handle my work.