Diane Jacobs

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Born in Southern California, Diane Jacobs grew up surf-fishing, creating potions, and drawing incessantly. At age 12, she and her family traveled to Japan, planting the seed for a lifelong interest in cross-cultural understanding. As an undergraduate at the University of California, Santa Cruz, Diane discovered her deep connection to forests, feminist thinking, and social justice. Her work continues to be informed by the cross-pollination of these elements. She makes artist books, installations, mixed-media sculptures, and works on paper influenced by research,  personal experience, community engagement, and a conviction that art inspires change.

In 1991, Diane received an International Rotary Foundation Graduate Scholarship to study in Italy for 8 months. In 1996, she received her MFA in printmaking from San Francisco State University and received a Leo D. Stillwell Graduate Scholarship. She also was awarded a James D. Phelan Award in printmaking (1997), a Kala Art Institute Fellowship (1997), and an Artadia award (2000). Diane moved to Portland in 2002. She received several Regional Arts and Cultural Council Project Grants (2005, 2008, 2012, 2019, & Arts 3C Grant in 2024), RACC Professional Development Grants (2009, 2014), Career Opportunity Grant from the Oregon Arts Commission/Ford Family Foundation (2010, 2015, 2020, 2024). Diane was a recipient of the following Artist-In-Residency Awards: Women’s Studio Workshop (1999), Signal Fire (2013, 2017), Kala Art Institute (2017), PLAYA (2016, 2024), Leland Iron Works (2018 -Golden Spot Award), Pine Meadow Ranch (2019), In Cahoots (2019), Township 10 (2024), and GLEAN (2024/5) Her prints, sculptural work, and artist books are in The Portland Art Museum, The Getty Research Institute Library, SF MOMA, the De Young Fine Arts Museum, Achenbach Foundation, The New York Public Library, the Library of Congress, Walker Art Center, and over 60 other university and public institution’s special collections. 

Photo credit Mario Gallucci