Open Studio May 4, 5 11-5pm ICB

I will be unveiling my latest book, Omo Valley: Vanishing Tribes, at my Open Studio, Saturday and Sunday, May 4-5 from 11am to 5pm. It will also be available on Amazon.com starting April 20, 2013.

Omo Valley is in the Southwest corner of Ethiopia and I traveled there this past January to visit the tribes and document their way of life while they are still living in their remote villages.

My travels in the last eight years have primarily been to experience non-Western cultures. The impact of what I learned on these travels has changed my focus from painting back to photography, which I did in the late 60's and 70's. I'm also creating videos; my first video, Painting with Elephants, will be on Marin TV this summer. With this new direction of mine, I'm doing less painting and more editing so I'm moving my studio to my home, making this my final Open Studio at ICB.

Hope you can stop by and visit the first weekend in May:


Industrial Center Building, Studio 330B
480 Gate 5 Road,
Sausalito, CA

Omo Valley: Vanishing Tribes

My new book will be available on Amazon.com on April 20, 2013

This is a paper back version of my photos of seven different tribes in the Omo Valley, Ethiopia.

The Omo Valley tribes I visited (Mursi, Hamer, Desanesh, Dorze, Konso, Tsemay and Ari) are still very primitive. The people live in one room huts with no electricity or water.

I got my BA in Cultural Anthropology and visiting these tribes was an amazing experience and something I had long dreamed of. I'm planning on returning to make a documentary  about the changes happening in this area because of the influx of foreign agricultural investors to this fertile area.

Omo Valley Tribal Markets

Through out the Omo Valley, Ethiopia, there are weekly tribal markets where the different villages come together to trade vegetables, milk, beans, snuff and colored earth that is used for decorations.

There also is a small section in each market where they sell hand crafted items or items they no longer use to the few tourists that come to these markets.

I bought the tortise cow bell from this vendor.

Carved figures for tourists.

Desanech Tribe, Ethiopia

In January, I went to Ethiopia to visit and photograph the tribes in the Omo Valley.
This is about the Desanech Tribe, near the Kenya border.

To get there we had to cross the Omo River in dugout canoes.

When we arrived to the other side, village boys were playing.

The village has no water supply, no electricity and the people still wear traditional dress.

This woman is carrying a water jug on her head. Her house is in the background.

The people get creative with their personal adornment.

These girls are using bottle tops.

This child has a watch band as decoration.

This village is very remote, no shops nearby, so almost everything is made by hand. Below is a village elder making a milk container.

There are no clinics nearby, so injuries, such as the bite on the boy below, are cured using natural remedies.

In college and graduate school I studied Cultural Anthropology so this trip was an amazing adventure for me, to actually visit tribes I had read about in school. The trip has also inspired my art work. I have already created a photo book of the different tribes I visited and am now working on incorporating my photos into my art.

My art can be seen at www.caroljacobsen.com (disclaimer: I now blog my newer paintings as it's easier than updating my website!!)

Winter Open Studio, Dec 1-2, 2012

Please join me at my Open Studio Saturday December 1 and Sunday December 2 from 11am to 2pm at Studio 330B, ICB Building, 480 Gate 5 Road, Sausalito. 70 artists studios will be open and there is free parking

I will be showing my latest series, Across Space and Time. The series continues my exploration of imaginary interactions of people from photographic images, this time expanding to include the tribes of the Omo Valley in Ethiopia. I was so inspired by these people that I'm going to visit them in 2013 for further inspiration.

I'm also trying to get the larger version of my 16 panel work completed. The existing piece is composed of 16 8"x10" birch panels.

I'm working on doing this same piece using 16 canvas panels, each 16" x 20". So far I've completed half of the panels. Will I get the rest completed by November 30?

And a final surprise will be two collaborative pieces painted by Thompetch (a six year old male Asian elephant) with me and Tom Russen. I'll be talking about the process at my show. You can see how the two pieces differ, depending on the artist who collaborated with Thompetch.

Hope to see you at my open studio, December 1 and 2 from 11am to 6pm. And I'll also be open Friday night from 6 to 9 pm. Address is ICB Building Studio 330B, 480 Gate 5 Road, Sausalito. 

Here's a video of Carol painting with Thongpetch
http://youtu.be/AHwrUGKDQqo

Elephant painting

I finally did it! I made a collaborative piece of art with an elephant. From the first time that I saw a youtube of an elephant painting in 2009, I was inspired to witness the process first hand.


 After my 2010 trip to Maese Elephant Camp near Chiang Mai, Thailand to watch elephants paint, I found out that the camp offered Basic Mahout Training Camp. Mahout's are the people who train the elephants. In 2012 I arranged to go back to stay at the elephant camp and do a collaborative piece of art with an elephant




Here is Thongpetch and me with our finished piece.





An elephant has to be trained to paint. To find out more of the process, read When Elephants Paint by Vitaly Komar. Thongpetch, a six year old 'modern' elephant could not only paint but play soccer! After spending three days learning elephant commands, riding and bathing Thongpetch, we were ready to paint together.

Step 1 is placing a paint filled brush into his trunk.

Because I was asking Thongpetch to paint in a style he was unaccustomed to (he normally paints dots), I had to use my finger to point where I wanted him to make his strokes.












This is Thongpetch applying the final stroke which was a dot. He was really focused during the entire painting process and his trunk quivered sometimes with his intense concentration.

Way to go Thongpetch!!

Chance and Choice - Delhi Night # 2

My first night in India I was driving through the streets of Delhi and saw this small child begging. At first I was shocked by the sight. After two weeks in India, I came to a difference awareness of the people and culture of India. There is such a strong spirituality in the country and strong sense of community and I saw the strength in the child. Delhi Night # 2 is my interpretation of this feeling.

Chance and Choice - Imprisoned

I have been using Photoshop as a composition tool for many of my latest works. Imprisoned was made using Photoshop as a design tool during the painting process.

I painted a 10" x 8" oil on canvas sketch about sexual slavery. My intention was to create a 5' x 4' painting of the sketch.


Because the 5' x 4' size was still intimidating me, I then took the lower right part of painting and did a version of it on a 30" x 24" canvas.

Holly
10" x 8" Oil on Canvas





As a painting, I felt this was too derivative of Gauguin. I also wanted to something bar like to give a feeling of imprisonment. So I took photos of trees in my yard and of the painting and put them together using layers in Photoshop.









I was happy with this image, so I painted tree trunks on the original 24" x 30" canvas.








The final piece:



Imprisoned
23" x 30"
Oil on Canvas

Chance and Choice - Possibilities

Possibilities

This painting was composed using three different photos I took on my trip to India: an older woman who seemed beat down by life, a young girl in a small town in northern India, with many of life's possibilities ahead of her, and a woman doing a hand stand in front of the Taj Mahal, symbolizing a world of possibilities.

The window of the train separates the older woman from the two with more abundant possibilities. Or perhaps it is the young girl looking in at a mirror of a potential future self.



















Possibilities
Oil on canvas
30" x 40"

If you want to see more of my art, please check out my website

www.caroljacobsen.com

or make an appointment to visit me at my studio
Industrial Center Building Studio 330B
480 Gate 5 Road, Sausalito, CA
Please contact me at carolj94941@yahoo.com

Chance and Choice Part 3

On the Ganges, I saw two children running from boat to boat. My
initial feeling was that they were in danger, but as I continued
to watch their surefootedness, and the attention all the other
boaters were giving them, I realized they were safe and
enjoying themselves with a freedom that I envied. From these
events, I painted my current series, exploring how chance and
choice affects everyone’s place in the world. The chance of
where you are born and the choices you have as you grow.




















Choices
Mixed Media on Birch Panel
8" x 10"

If you want to see more of my art, please check out my website

www.caroljacobsen.com

or make an appointment to visit me at my studio
Industrial Center Building Studio 330B
480 Gate 5 Road, Sausalito, CA
Please contact me at carolj94941@yahoo.com

Chance and Choice Part 2

My first day in India, I was in a bus, traveling through Delhi at
night and saw a small child begging by the side of the busy
street. At first appalled by the sight, by the time I reached
Varanasi and witnessed the morning and evening prayers on a
boat on the Ganges, I realized different cultures can not be
viewed using a concentric point of view.

Delhi Nights

Oil on Canvas
30" x 40"

If you want to see more of my art, please check out my website
www.caroljacobsen.com
or make an appointment to visit me at my studio
Industrial Center Building Studio 330B
480 Gate 5 Road, Sausalito, CA
Please contact me at carolj94941@yahoo.com

Chance and Choice

The thoughts behind Chance and Choice

Two trips I took, Cambodia in 2010 and India in 2011, inspired the art that I made in 2011. I am currently working on a book, Chance and Choice, about these paintings.

The first in the series is One at a Time, oil on 4 canvases, each 8" x 10"


In Cambodia, I photographed two little girls in a small village that
didn’t have a school. While at home, looking at the photos, I
thought about how their lives could change if they had
education. But the choice wasn’t there for them, because of
the lack of a school. I painted One at a Time to symbolize the
that change is possible even if it’s only to help one person at a
time.

If you want to see more of my art, please check out my website
www.caroljacobsen.com
or make an appointment to visit me at my studio
Industrial Center Building Studio 330B
480 Gate 5 Road, Sausalito, CA