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Feb. 2, 2007
Subject in good hands
Kathryn Jacobi fills JCC's gallery with musicians.
BAILA LAZARUS
As soon as I see Kathryn Jacobi's drawings, I know we will be talking
about hands. For me, in sketching classes back in university, and
apparently for Jacobi as well, hands are the bane of our existence;
the curse of a realist artist; the reason we want to forget about
the canvas and would prefer to have a root canal instead.
For Jacobi, it took years to perfect this particular aspect of her
craft, the result of which can be seen in her new exhibit, Music,
at the Zack Gallery in the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver.
The desire to paint musicians stemmed from an interest in music
that Jacobi has had since she was a child, growing up in New York
City, with a Victrola playing in the house, watching her brother
practise the violin. Later on, she would attend musical concerts
and the opera, and she would watch her goddaughter learn to play
the violin as well. She became enthralled with how the musician
relates to the instrument. In order to do them justice, however,
Jacobi had to focus particularly on the hands – how the fingers
held a bow, covered a hole or pressed a string.
"The instruments make it much more difficult," said Jacobi
in an interview at the gallery. "The combination of the motion
of the hands, and the tension...." She recalled how she had
to will herself to address the artistic challenge. "I did [the
hands], but only under duress. I decided I was going to get through
it. I forced myself to learn." She paused a few seconds and
then added, "Then, after that, I had to do feet!"
In order to get the images she wants, Jacobi will do full-size sketches
of oil on paper, sometimes half a dozen or more, then work on smaller
sizes before completing a final painting in oil on wood. For "The
Yellow Room," she did eight studies. For "Gospel Singer,"
she actually liked the sketch she had done on paper, so she finished
it and mounted it on wood.
Part of what's enjoyable about this exhibit is that Jacobi has included
the incomplete studies themselves as part of the show, not just
the finished work, so the viewer can see how she gets from first
sketch to finished product.
Those familiar with the work of Dutch artists of the 17th century
will recognize their influences in Jacobi's work. Painters such
as Vermeer and Rembrandt were often referred to as the "masters
of light" because of their use of lighting, from behind or
off to the side, focused almost on one spot on the model, leaving
the rest of the room dark, to create atmosphere, as if to evoke
some feeling of mystery.
The use of black paint in much of her work, however, made it difficult
for Jacobi to show them under glass, because the glare was be too
strong. Rather than paint on canvas, she painted on wood, so they
wouldn't have to be mounted in a frame.
For subjects, Jacobi looked no further than her circle of acquaintances
– friends, children of friends or her own relatives. The man
in "Violinist" is actually her brother; the girl in "The
Yellow Room" is her goddaughter, born on Jacobi's 50th birthday;
and the boy in "Violist" is the son of the woman in "Cellist."
In one exception, the woman in "Gospel Singer" is a woman
Jacobi saw as she was outside just walking on the street; a woman
whom she convinced to pose because "she had just what I was
looking for."
Jacobi currently divides her time between Santa Monica, Calif.,
and Sechelt, B.C. Her paintings and drawings have been exhibited
in museums, university and galleries in Berlin, Denmark, Madrid,
Calgary, Toronto, Vancouver and throughout the United States.
The exhibit Music: Drawings and Paintings runs until March 4 at
the Sidney and Gertrude Zack Gallery. A second exhibit of different
artwork, New Landscapes, will run at the Diane Farris Gallery from
Feb. 1-24.
Baila Lazarus is a freelance writer, photographer and
illustrator living in Vancouver. Her work can be seen at www.orchiddesigns.net.
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