Julie's Bio

My name is Julie Jacobs and I am an artist and a teacher. I grew up in a family of artists, and learned to paint in my Grandmother’s shadow at Martin Lubner’s Studio in Los Angeles. I went on to study painting and printmaking at Rhode Island School of Design and the San Francisco Art Institute. As I grew as an artist, I became very interested in how art and word compliment and inform each other.

I finished my degree in creative writing at Mills College.

As a teacher I draw from a variety of different educational experiences. I have run multi-age art camps and workshops, worked as the Director of my own art studio, run after school enrichment classes, and taught in a private studio setting. I have taught in traditional public, private and alternative school classrooms. I have also worked extensively with the special needs population.

A primary purpose I have as a teacher is to bridge the larger art world to my students, to ground them both historically as well as contemporarily in the art world. We talk about current exhibits, museums and galleries. I let my students know that I believe they are all artists and encourage them to become more than they are at every stage of development.

I love watching children start to own their art work! It is the place where the children stop asking, “Is it ok if I paint the sky blue?” and say instead, “Look what I did! I made an explosion of sunset using purple orange and red.” This is the moment where technique becomes second nature and the children are free to just become makers.