Janel Jacobson (b. 1950) is a wood carver, who carves inspirations from nature for more than three decades.
The material of choice has changed, but the thoughtful observation of the setting and detail of her subjects has been a key interest to the vitality and continuity of her work. Currently, she works in very dense, hard, fine-grained woods to create very small and detailed sculptures. The nature of the subjects, being small in life, inspires her to work in a small scale, composing real or imagined situations. Her career as a self-employed artist, begun in 1972, spanning decades of creative work: first as a potter, then a porcelain carver, and now a carver of wood. In 1995, she ceased working with clay when she took up a piece of boxwood and carved the first, small, wood sculpture. The explorations in various hardwoods and other carvable materials have grown in scale and scope from small netsuke and ojime, to stand-alone small sculptures.
