Carl Jacobson

Visual Art – New Orleans

The past year was intense: from the end of a 20 year relationship to moving alone from Boston to Baton Rouge to start my new life. Like all stressful periods, this was one of my most creative. My new series, Grace & Grit loosely chronicles the changes I went through, from fear and depression, a moment of realization, fighting my demons, to peaceful acceptance and new love blossoming. One day, at the darkest point, I was sitting looking at a statue of St. Francis at Trinity Church, when it dawned on me that revered icons of our society are always presented in pristine environments, when reality probably was not pretty as they had their spiritual awakening or whatever made them Buddhas, saints, and heros. That’s where Grace & Grit was born. I seek to capture the calm centering grace seen in spiritual and heroic works, but with the honest grit brought back into the picture. Creating this series helped me through one of the toughest periods of my life and I’d like to share it with people. My work \"Saint Satchmo of New Orleans\" is currently being auctioned by Louisiana Public Broadcasting in their annual fundraiser. Previously, my work hung in Alex Grey’s Microcosm Gallery in NYC, my piece “Brother Ray” was used as the invitation to the Jam session following Ray Charles’ Funeral, and my work was featured on and used for the cover of a philosophy DVD featuring Ken Wilber and Lama Surya Das.