Artist Statement
I have always drawn my inspiration from nature. Even as a child, I roamed the woods with a combination of curiosity and fear, often deliberately losing myself among the trees, and letting my imagination run wild. Increasingly I began to incorporate found materials and objects-those pieces whose essence spoke to me-into my art work. In this way, moss and simple tree branches are transformed into parts of creatures.
The delicate balance between humans and their surroundings grows ever more precarious. In my work there is a clarion call to safeguard the environment while we still can. Thus a bird like creature is seen as the literal sum of its dependence on various small creatures. The “chain” is the actual backbone of the bird, integral to its very survival. In such a way we are all connected, in an intricate, delicate balance, for better or worse. The web of life both nurtures and destroys.
Bio
Anita Jacobson has a long-ranging background in the fields of art and historic preservation. She received a B.A degree from New York University and attended Cooperstown Graduate Program in Museum Studies. Her career began as a freelance graphic designer and photo researcher, and in 1982 she co-founded New York City’s Tenement Museum. Jacobson has participated in group and solo exhibits at Gallery66, Cold Spring, NY as well as other galleries in the Hudson Valley. Her work was shown at Skylight Gallery, in a joint exhibit at Grace Institute, both in New York City, and most recently in a group exhibit, “The Grass Menagerie”, at the Reeves-Reed Arboretum in Summit, NJ.