Sarit Jacobsohn, nashville
Member Since November 2013
Artist Statement At age 18, like all Israeli citizens, Sarit was drafted into the military. After learning that resistance was futile and would result in prison time until she would agree to serve, she joined. But she did not stay long. Her short time in the military was marked by her desire to leave at all costs, even if it meant her death. It was in the military that she did her first art installation, in resistance to serving. When ordered to paint many rooms white, she instead painted them black. Expressing happiness at disrupting a well oiled war machine. In an effort to escape the army, she plead insanity, to which the army just laughed. Then one day a panel of psychiatric officers said to her that she could have an easy job away from any violence. She then cried to them, “but I love the Palestinians” , to which they replied “oh…that is a problem”. She was then discharged from service.
After leaving the military she found herself wanting to leave Israel. So she traveled to Europe, where she saw works from the great masters, leaving her greatly disappointed.
Then she found Dali, Escher, Van Gogh, Khalo and others.
She found early German impressionists especially intriguing. Surrealism and the impressionist movement are perhaps her greatest influences. It is here she saw the world in a new light, and found it refreshing.
After traveling Europe, she went to America and enrolled at the Art Institute of Boston. A school she found to be too rooted in commercialism, a trait she found boring. Moving on, she attended the Museum School of Fine Arts in Boston. Finding the school inviting, she was given the freedom to begin a journey developing her hand. Her professors allowed her the freedom and support she needed to evolve into her own unique style of expression. They loved the way she painted not what she saw, but how she saw it. She was not a student in their eyes, but an artist. Andy McMillian said of Sarit, ” you are all drawing like technicians, this….is an artist!” while showing her sketch to the class. While here, she met Steve, a local Boston man whose tutelage played a great role in her artistic education. It was he who taught her technique. A prolific artist himself, he spent the hours to prepare her for a lifetime of painting.
After spending time in Boston, Sarit went to London, where she lived in a tiny apartment. She furthered her studies at Chelsea Collage of Art, where she spent the days drawing whatever models they presented. Portabello Cafe showed her art, where Nick Cave took several for his personal collection.
Returning to America, she traveled the country many years preforming her music. Painting a little, and selling them along the way to get from town to town. Today she lives, settled in Tennessee, painting every day. Her house filled with brightly colored canvases and spilled paint on floors and walls. On Halloween, the neighborhood children and their parents gasp in amazement at the explosion of colors emanating from her living room. They stand, eyes lost in the details one must get really close to see. Drawn close from afar like bees to a garden of blooming flowers. They always want to see more of the other worldly universe of Sarit Jacobsohn’s art. Who needs candy anyway.
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