by Judy "JJ" Jacobs

When I was a kid, I wanted to make art; play; eat and sleep -- in that order.  As a 5-year old, my artistic expertise and understanding of the way life worked was admittedly fairly limited. So nearly half of a century later and armed with a little extra knowledge and a few more skills in my paintbox, I have decided to travel back through my life and assign a new voice to my childhood self.

Each of my paintings tells a story. They are based on things I see, read about, and watch on TV, as well as memories of events, feelings and colors.  When I paint I try to find the balance between intuition and intellect, so that the process of painting becomes an active dialogue between myself and my artist muse. I don't have a finished picture in my mind but rather paint based on what is going on in my life at the moment.   The paintings are like dreams – the memories of the day reorganized and combined with other events and memories until a new, often surprising, reality has taken shape.

My works are largely expressive contemporary abstracts and usually non-representational, and my art is influenced by many people and things including: Cezanne, Georgia O'Keefe, Chagall, Van Gogh, Matisse, Jackson Pollock, the California coastline, old barns, buildings and houses, cityscapes, signs, typography, the desert, maps, ballerinas, religion, mathematics and life.

 

“If I create from the heart, nearly everything works; if from the head, almost nothing.”

~Marc Chagall

"I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn't say any other way....things I had no words for."

~ Georgia O'Keefe