About the Artist: Jacob Fossum

Jacob Fossum has little sense of belonging to a specific place, having lived in a number of states while growing up. He currently lives in Sacramento. He derives from a long line of Mormon pioneer stock, and he served an LDS mission in Argentina. He says his Mormon heritage and his experience as a missionary infuse his art, providing “a profound pool of myth and symbols from which I can dip, then compare and relate to others around me.” When he showed an interest in painting upon completing high school, his mother—a baker—traded bread for private art lessons from a local portrait painter, Martha Lower, to whom he acknowledges a great debt. He holds a bachelor of fine arts degree from Utah State University and a master of fine arts in studio painting from Hoffberger School of Painting, Maryland Institute College of Art, Baltimore. He has participated in group shows and recently a solo show, “Ganesha Gone Wild” and other paintings in the Rodger LaPelle Galleries in Philadelphia. “I find honesty,” he writes, “in trying to create images that reflect the spiritual and physical truths of my surroundings. . . . Attempting to render images as I see and feel them is akin to my attempts at sensing truth.” For more about his life and art, visit his website at www.jacobfossum.com. 

Front cover: Ganesha Gone Wild, 96 x 96 inches, oil on canvas, 2007.

Back cover: The Flight of the Wendybird, 80 x 50 inches, oil on canvas, 2006.