|
|
Diane Jacobs
Website: www.dianejacobs.net
Instagram: #dianedeejart
BIOGRAPHY
Born in Southern California in 1966, Diane grew up surf fishing, creating potions, and drawing incessantly. At age 12, she and her family traveled to Japan, planting the seed for a lifelong interest in cross-cultural understanding. As an undergraduate at University of California, Santa Cruz, she discovered her deep connection to forests, feminist thinking, and social justice - her work continues to be informed by the cross-pollination of these elements.
Jacobs uses materials that surprise and stimulate associative and visceral reactions in an effort to interpret society and initiate change. Through her creative process she examines and conveys the complexities, contradictions and injustices of our world. Her intention is to spark curiosity and use that light to ignite further self-reflection and action.
She received her MFA in printmaking from San Francisco State University in 1996, during which time she received a Leo D. Stillwell Graduate Scholarship (1995). After finishing her degree she was awarded a James D. Phelan Award in printmaking (1997) and a Kala Art Institute Fellowship (1997). In 1999, she was granted a Women’s Studio Workshop Artist Book Residency. In 2000 Jacobs received a prestigious Artadia award while living in San Francisco, CA. After moving to Portland, OR in 2002 Jacobs received four Regional Arts & Cultural Council Project Grant (2019, 2012, 2008 & 2005). She also received two RACC Professional Development Grants (2009, 2014) and a Career Opportunity Grant from the Oregon Arts Commission in 2010 and with additional funding from The Ford Family Foundation in 2015 & 2020. Diane has been selected for several residency opportunities: Signal Fire’s - Alpenglow Artist Backpacking Residency (2013) & Hart Mountain: Great Blanket of Stars Artist Campout (2017), PLAYA artist residency (2016) ), Kala Art Institute Parent Residency Award (2017), Golden Spot Award – Leland Iron Works Artist-in-Residence (2018), Pine Meadow Ranch Artist-in-Residence (2019), In Cahoots Artist Residency (2019), and a 2020 Travel Assistance Grant from the College Book Art Association to attend the 2020 CBAA Conference in New Orleans where she presented with colleague Alisa Banks. Jacobs received an Artadia Grant for past awardees in 2020 and CBAA awarded Diane a Support Grant in 2021.
Diane lives in Portland, Oregon with her husband and two sons (who are now away at college). Her prints, sculptural work, and artist books are in The Portland Art Museum, The Getty Research Institute Library, SFMOMA, the De Young Fine Arts Museum, Achenbach Foundation, The New York Public Library, the Library of Congress, Walker Art Center, Savannah College of Art and Design, University of Alberta, University of Chicago Library, University of Miami, Corcoran School of the Arts & Design, Yale, Stanford, and Reed College among others.
ARTIST STATEMENT
Owed to The Mountain is a sculptural artist book – the box unfolds one leaf at a time, to reveal each of the four directions. The Mountain is featured in four different printmaking techniques: West face - etching, North face - wood engraving, East face - lithograph, and South face - reduction woodcut. There are four linoleum cut river prints and three handset, letterpress-printed stories from the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs. The box opens flat and in the center a paper mountain peeks through a cloud layer held up by five tree trunks. There are three handmade paper mountain skins nested inside one another. The outermost layer is made with celadonite pigment and accentuated with white ink exposing words. The middle surface details the dwindling glaciers and the innermost represents the volcanic strata. Beneath the mountain rests a fine press book. Animal ink drawings in various colorful ecosystems and habitats appear among the text, documenting the changing seasons. The stories weave multiple Native voices that underscore the value of friendship, reciprocity, interdependence, and cooperation.
Materials and printmaking techniques for the fine-press book include solar etching plates developed from Sumi ink animal drawings, a monoprint centerfold, a water motif silkscreen printed on book cloth for the hard covers, end sheets made from eco-printing plants found on Mt. Hood, habitats created from pressure printing and reduction woodcuts, and stories handset in Weiss foundry type (Roman and italic 12 pt., 14 pt., and 18 pt.) and printed letterpress. Book pages are Zerkall paper, end pages are Rives lightweight, and the beaver and river otter were printed on mulberry paper and adhered to the inside covers.
Owed to The Mountain takes three forms: an eight-copy limited edition (a collapsible box holding a three-dimensional paper mountain with a copy of the fine-press book beneath), the fine-press book (a 32 copy edition numbered 9 - 40), and a digital edition of 250 copies printed at Morel Ink in Portland, Oregon.
Owed to The Mountain cultivates a powerful story that inspires knowing a place deeply, sharing Indigenous wisdom, and building a community that turns its love for a mountain into action. Mt. Hood has the 6th largest carbon stores of all National Forests in the country! By galvanizing a movement that advocates for the US Forest Service management plan to be updated, Mt Hood can be celebrated and treated as a living ecosystem and increase its climate resilience. Through this project’s research, interviews, and by spending time on the mountain, I understand how important it is that we protect clean drinking water, promote wildlife habitat restoration, support forest maturation, and prioritize the vision and cultural traditions of Native communities, including the practice of controlled burns. We owe it to the Mountain.
ARTIST'S WORK
Owed to The Mountain
Photography by Aaron Wessling, and funded by a CBAA Member Support Grant, 2021
Project was supported by a 2019 Project Grant from the Regional Arts & Culture Council and a 2020 Career Opportunity Grant from the Oregon Arts Commission and Ford Family Foundation
Half title, eco print end pages, silk-screen book cloth hard cover
Solar etching animals, reduction woodcut trees, handset metal type
Solar etching animals and mono print centerfold
Solar etching red tree vole, pressure printing Doug fir bark and branches, handset metal type
Reduction woodcut two blocks, handset metal type
Closed box, Owed to The Mountain, 2021, handset letterpress printed label, 14.25” x 14.25” x 8.25"
Owed to The Mountain, 2021, 60” x 60” x 8”, wood, plexiglass, etching, wood engraving, lithograph, color wood reduction print, linoleum cuts, three paper mountain skins, fine press book beneath
|
