Meet Margaux Jacobs

Today we’d like to introduce you to Margaux Jacobs.

Every artist has a unique story. Can you briefly walk us through yours?
Growing up in South Florida, I experienced my first major hurricane (Andrew) at the age of three. My mother’s side was in town visiting, and there was lots of commotion about the storm coming. Instead of being scared or unsure about the storm, I decided to process the event through art. While everyone frantically ran around me, I sat in the living room with my Crayola easel and asked my mother what color the storm was. She didn’t give me much of a response other than grey, as she didn’t really know what color the storm was. I ended up painting a big circle as large as the paper would allow of grey blues, purples, reds, and greens. Looking back I wonder if this way of processing information gave me a sense of calmness… As even today the idea of a hurricane triggers more of a cozy nostalgia for me than any negative association. I grew up painting and drawing as my own way to process information, and this practice has only grown as I’ve entered my adult years. Threw art I have learned that failure is only a step away from success. My art practice correlates to my yoga practice, which correlates to my life practice. The same lessons of failure are to be learned through the process of the challenges faced in each space.

Most of those lessons are about feeling out a balance of control, letting go, and having faith and an educational knowledge to back that faith. Knowledge we learned in the past with both book and experience, comprised with new knowledge coming in at real time, is how painting decisions are made, Same as Yoga and Life.

Please tell us about your art.
My art is an overwhelming practice of never-ending inspiration. I’m attracted to shapes, colors, and contrast, but during the process of translating the shape and color I have deemed worthy enough to repeat, I begin to allow the shapes, colors, and material to speak back in a way, and tell me what to do next. It’s more of a negotiation, and if I get too controlling, I will keep losing control-(which can actually turn out to be a good thing sometimes.) Most of the time, I listen to what is being asked of me and end up with a painting I could have never dreamed off, but in a way new I was making the whole time. I’m working on my online master degree in preventative medicine, and I cook healthy quite a bit. I’m also a yoga teacher, dog lover and female power promoter, all of which show up in my art in the form of portraits of both humans and animals, to fruit and vegetables colors and shapes, to figurative yoga abstractions, and even works about recovering from my own domestic abuse, and the lose of the self. With my works, I hope to inspire women to remember who they are, for people In general to find joy in health and self-care. I hope to trigger fascination in yoga, and remind people that dogs are our spiritual companions, not something to abuse. The materials I use range from charcoal on vellum, to canvas or wood panel, and my favorite Acrylic on Acrylic. My Acrylic on Acrylic pieces are created by using a number of processes and techniques that I have developed over the past four years. They are pure acrylic paint and are displayed by self-sticking to Acrylic rods which is a method I discovered during my time at Art Center College of Design.

What do you think about conditions for artists today? Has life become easier or harder for artists in recent years? What can cities like ours do to encourage and help art and artists thrive?
I can’t say if it’s become harder or not, but everything feels corrupted. “Art” these days seems to have no direction, the best an average artist can do is find a style or type of painting that can be repeated 1000 times to create enough of a following. Galleries seem to care more about who you have sold to rather than the art your making. Cities need to employ their artists… Our cities are so ugly and boring, there’s not an artistic touch in anything that we look at every day. Where are our jobs? Why are we only needed as graphic designers or sculptures? Where can the painters go for a job?

How or where can people see your work? How can people support your work?
People can view my work on my website MargauxJacobs.com – I am currently not holding any exhibitions, but in the past three years I have shown in a number of states and galleries.