Artist Profile

Barbara Jacobs

Sebastopol, California

NEW: In addition to my fine art, you can find out all about professional color consulting services including fine art consultation, my new PersonalPreview service: https://www.barbarajacobsfineart.com/page/26345/personalpreview%99-design-services
Check out my architectural color website at https://bjacobscolordesign.com. At the art site, you can order originals and also archival pigmented (giclee) prints on paper, canvas, and metal! I have quite a few unique options for prints on these materials.

ARTIST STATEMENT: COLOR AT THE CORE
I am fascinated with exploring color and texture through non-representational subject matter through a variety of media. Among favorite materials are: pastel, strictly monoprint, monotype with oil stick or soy-based ink + additional materials and photography; digital art combined with physical media in layered processes; drawings, painting, and other items sometimes included in ‘mixed media.’ My work in the fine art realm derives from my long-time work with color in the built environment, which is three dimensional on a large scale, combined with many years’ experience creating and installing murals, and pattern and surface design using many materials, including studying and working with historically ethnic processes of indigenous peoples. It’s interesting to me that the deep involvement I’ve had in those frameworks over the past 40+ years is coming into my personal artwork from a different angle.

INSPIRATION, PROCESSES, and THEMES
I’m not tied to any one medium or subject but enjoy myriad explorations, even including line drawings of both semi-representational and highly imaginative subjects. Regardless of the materials I work with, layering elements is important to me for my own process and experience and also for inviting the viewer to share in that experience and create his or her own story around it. I've been able to also incorporate into current work my experience of over 25 years of creating commissioned wall finishes including glazing, murals and Venetian plaster.

Themes of landscape and land-forms, architecture, history/culture, natural and human phenomena, and interpretations of being in, and observing, time and space in myriad dimensions are among the many subjects I find intriguing. The concept of "windows" is a recurring one that I continue to explore, considering it in a way as a lens through which color/texture and other elements are expressed. I enjoy working in series, so you will see among the gallery images some connection between either a few or many images done in a particular style or medium.

WHY COLOR is SO IMPORTANT
Applying an understanding of our human response to color is at the core of my art and design philosophy. ‘Environmental color'—how we are affected by color and related shapes in our physical spaces, and ways of developing and communicating with color—has been prevalent in my own personal art work as well as in my professional color design work. Inspiration specifically in the art work comes from many sources but also often comes from the materials themselves, as becoming inspired by and immersed in a physical process often leads to image, form, and concept development. As the subject matter of any piece evolves—whether intentional at the outset or more intuitively, as the result of the process—I tend to work in series of pieces that may even move from one medium to another as the inspiration and processes develop.

Born in Minnesota, Barbara moved from Boston to Sonoma County in Fall of 2015. Her father, William Saltzman, was an artist well-known nationally for his paintings, sculpture, and large stained-glass work in public spaces. Her lifetime of immersion in this art-and-color-centric environment provided a lasting influence. Her formal artistic education includes work done at the Academia di Belle Arti in Florence, Italy; the University of California, Berkeley, where she studied with Adja Yunkers and David Hockney; and the University of Minnesota, where she received her Bachelor of Arts in studio art with a concentration in painting and printmaking.

TEACHING and PUBLISHING
Barbara's experience includes workshops for selected high school art students, in textile design processes of indigenous cultures, through the Massachusetts Cultural Council. Also, presentations to architects, designers, and homeowners on color in the built environment, through NEOCON and other organizations. Most recently, private workshops for small groups about understanding color, and making effective color selections for the home and personal projects, Over the many years of her color consult practice, Barbara and her work have been featured in numerous shelter and design publications as well as related web sites,

COMING UP: private and semi-private art classes. Get updates from my newsletter, sign up at www.barbarajacobsfineart.com

EXHIBITING
Since arriving in Sonoma County, Barbara has enjoyed participating in many exhibits including featured artist exhibits and juried exhibitions, at these fine locations in the area:
Sebastopol Center for the Arts
Petaluma Arts Center
Riverfront Art Gallery, Petaluma
Graton Gallery
Sonoma Artist’s Guild
Occidental Center for the Arts
Santa Rosa Arts Center
Marin Society of Artists
VenturePad - San Raphael
Art from the Heart
Art at the Source
Private Patron Collections