Carol Jacobsen

My current work is all inspired by my travels.

My Painting With an Elephant series is based on two trips (2012, 2013) I spent in an elephant camp in northern Thailand painting with a seven year old elephant named Thongpetch. The first time we painted together, Thongpetch had never drawn a straight line, so I taught him how. By the next year, when he was eight, he was more comfortable using many types of painting strokes and even did some of the lines himself, without being shown what to do before hand. It was incredible to experience the progress he'd made in his painting style.

The Omo Valley, Ethiopia portraits were taken in 2013. My trip to this area was inspired by a desire to capture the colorful and unusual personal decorations of the tribal people who are still using traditional techniques. I wanted to document these beautiful art forms while they still are practiced in this area. With a major road and airport under construction, change seems inevitable to this once remote region.The five oil paintings are from my series Across Space and Time, where I contrasted images from different times and locations in the world. Where and when people are born into this world profoundly affects their life choices and experiences.

I have been painting since childhood. My first art classes were at the Minneapolis Museum of Art when I was eight. After earning my B.A. at U of Minnesota, I took art classes at Minneapolis College of Art and Design, 1979; College of Marin, 1991–2012; San Francisco State, 1994. I studied with Bob Burridge from 2003-2006 and Chester Arnold from 2010 to 2012.