Classical and Experimental Art at Studio A Gallery

Mark Jacobson’s self-portrait is called Learning to Fly, because it is something he has never done in his life. 

"It shows the possible futility of the desire to fly, to be spiritual," Jacobson said. "There’s no way the figure in my painting is going to succeed.  There’s a moon at the top of the painting, showing through the church, so I’m laughing at myself, thinking how absurd I am.” 

Yet there’s quite a lot that Jacobson can do, as you can see at in Tarrytown.  His intense efforts of twenty-five years are represented by painting after painting expertly executed in classical style, some with surrealistic elements.  Salvador Dali has been a strong influence on him, as have Johannes Vermeer, Jan van Eyck and the Early Netherlandish School.  He is an unabashed critic of the art of our times, saying that, “I think 95 percent of the contemporary art you see in galleries and museums nowadays is worthless.”

“The first experience I had with painting was when I was twenty years old,” he said. “Forty years ago.  I saw Dali’s Crucifixion at the Metropolitan Museum.  They had it hung in beautiful light and it was stunning.  I just stood there.” 

Family pressure resulted in postponement of his art career as he went Optometry school, and after that he worked with other people’s vision during the day and his own artistic vision at night.  For a year he studied with Jack Faragasso at the Art Students League in Manhattan. 

Painting is serious work for Jacobson. 

“I’m ultra-tense when I paint.  Sometimes I can hardly breathe.  It’s not fun, I don’t do it for fun.  I do it because I have to.  It superimposes a purpose on life.  It’s the closest thing I can do as an individual to honoring creation, what is, what exists.  It’s such a miracle.  It’s like a cosmic assignment.”

His technique is derived from the Art Students League and from self-study afterwards, notably the few pages on the subject in Salvador Dali’s book Fifty Secrets of Master Craftsmanship. 

“Most of the paintings are oils, (some are acrylic), done in very classical techniques using underpainting and overpainting,” he said.  “The underpainting is either black and white and gray or transparent washes of burnt umber.  I wash in the composition and the light/shadow.  Then if the underpainting is black and white, I glaze color over it.  If it’s brown wash I paint over it in color in thicker layers.   I use whichever technique I feel like at the moment.  I usually use 4 or 5 layers and they take weeks.” 

The darker paintings have never been shown before, but many of his other works have been recognized.  He won first prize in American Artist Magazine’s Golden Anniversary Competition and in addition to Studio A he is represented by the Wickiser Gallery in Soho and the NoHo Gallery in Chelsea. 

Athena He, the owner of said she admires, “the beautiful work. Not too many people spend hours and hours to get such quality and details.” 

Another significant influence on Jacobson was Werner Erhard and his EST training in the 1970’s, of which Jacobson said, “His model of how the mind works hit me like a baseball bat and I experienced Zen.  Thirty years later I get it and lose it, over and over.” 

Working conditions aren’t ideal for Jacobson and he hasn’t had much luck with studio space.  When he had a studio in Yonkers with no heat, “I set up a space heater and I was painting in my hat and coat when I smelled something and looked down to see that my boot was melting.  Each time I’d get a studio space it would work for about a year and then something would happen.” 

Now he mostly paints at home, with a little easel set up in the corner. 

"Almost every day I trip over a chair or knock over a cup of coffee or something.  You have to have a sense of humor.”  As does his wife, Elaine, who appears to be his muse. 

“He has an amazing amount of discipline,” she said.  “I see him there painting 12 hours a day.  I’ve become very well acquainted with the back of his head.  Sometimes I even give him a haircut while he’s painting intently.  I just warn him that the scissors are coming.”

You’ll be able to see his work at , 52 Main Street in Tarrytown, until June 15, 2011.  You can also look online at CreateCulture.org.    

Along with Jacobson’s work is a selection of pieces by Brian Arditi, a young artist who is showing in a gallery for the first time.  Gallery owner Athena He thought there would be a good dichotomy between the works by the two very different artists. 

“My work is not to stand and look at for hours,” Arditi said.  “I just want to bring people a little joy.”

His pieces are organic, using flowers, orange peel,  soil, and other natural substances that add dimension.  All the sources for the natural pigments were collected by him on a month-long trip last summer. 

He developed a substance like a lacquer (he doesn’t want to give away the whole recipe) with which he coats flowers and other organic items to transform them into art.  Some of his pieces are freestanding objects and others are adhered, whole or transformed, to flat supports, combined with his medium.  He feels that “the spectrum the earth has to offer is unrivaled.  It’s better than anything you can get out of a tube or jar.” 

When he first began studying art, he worked with the figure.  When he tried acrylics a few years ago, he switched to abstraction, believing, as many artists do, that the medium almost suggests it.

He has a basic knowledge of art history and technique, including cave paintings, and tries to give it a new twist.  He embraces trial and error.  “When you do it yourself it has a bigger rush, at least for me.”

For more information call the gallery at 914-412-2955 or 347-755-6069, or e-mail studioagallery@gmail.com.