Our Story

                                                                           

I’ve wanted to share my mom’s beautiful artwork for so long and it’s finally the right time to move forward on this journey. I was very close to my mom and I don’t feel that has changed since her passing. I miss her every day and I talk to her every day. I’ve heard the saying that “there is no time line with grief” and that is so true. Since my mom’s death from pancreatic cancer, almost 27 years ago, I have found that some days are just as difficult now, as they were in 1994. I also know that through my grief, I have grown into a woman my mom would be proud of.

I enjoy my life with my husband and our dog, Maggie. I have a successful business and enjoy coaching at our local high school. My mom’s talent, as an artist, shows through in her work and I’ve wanted to share it since her death. I have tried a few times over the years, but it never seemed to be the right time. I don’t think I was ready. I missed her so much and it just seemed bigger than I could handle.

What’s different now? I feel I have my mom by my side. I always have, but as I have been making plans to move forward, I feel she is in agreement with the decisions I’m making. I know she wants me to be happy. It’s one of the last things she said to me, before she died. And I can say, sharing her work with you is making me so happy. Enjoy her gift, her talent and her legacy.

Hugs, Jennie  

 

The Story of Artist Donna J. Jacobson

 

Donna J. Jacobson was born in Los Angeles in 1944 and was raised in the L.A. area by her mother and grandmother.  She married in 1962 and spent the next 15 years as a wife and mother.  After the death of her husband in 1976, Donna decided to go back to school to pursue a nursing degree.  While in school she took her first art class – a beginning oil painting class – and was exposed to art for the first time. 

Over the next two years she continued developing her artistic style, specifically through the use of charcoal & wood.  She also began to incorporate Native American themes & people into her work.   Even though Donna had never been around Native American culture, she had been interested in it since high school. 

To achieve her style, Donna would rub charcoal onto her fingers and would then blend it onto a piece of wood.  Working directly on the wood, without preliminary sketches, she would build layers with her fingers, letting the wood blend with the charcoal as she created her images.  Although the Native American faces she captures in her work look life-like, Donna would create the images from her mind instead of from pictures or an actual person.  Her technique for incorporating the images into her work actually involved the wood itself.  “I look for a pattern in the grain,” she described.  “The grain of the wood becomes part of the face.  I wanted the beauty of the wood to shine through.”  Jacobson said she will often begin a face with the eyes.  “They’re the most important part.  I build my faces from the eyes.”  Perhaps there was an internal reason for her interest in Native American culture.  Jacobson found out from her father, with whom she didn’t have contact until briefly before he died in 1987, was part Choctaw.

As Donna’s artwork grew in popularity, she remarried and moved from Los Angeles to the Central Coast of California.  She and her husband continued to produce her artwork, many of which can be found in private and corporate collections throughout the world.  After a brave battle with cancer, Donna passed away in 1994.  Her husband, Frank, passed away in 1999.  Donna’s children are continuing to publish and sell her work.