Patti Jacquemain
Mosaics and Original Woodblock Prints
Patti Jacquemain
Born in Detroit, Michigan, Patti Jacquemain was raised on a ranch in Santa Barbara, California, where she developed a great love of the outdoors. Upon graduation from high school, she attended the Chouinard Art Institute in Los Angeles on a scholarship. She received her Bachelor of Arts degree in Painting from the University of California at Santa Barbara in 1964 and a Master of Fine Arts degree in Printmaking from the same school in 1974.
Jacquemain began her career by concentrating on drawing, painting, and etching. She was introduced to the woodcut in 1974 and has worked principally in the relief process ever since. Most of her prints are made from wood and linoleum blocks are are often inspired by her watercolors.
The subject matter of Patti's prints are a reflection of her travels and experiences worldwide. For two years she explored the eastern seaboard while working and living aboard a 44 foot sailboat, creating the series of prints "To Port and Starboard." The imagery of her experiences and the moods of the sea continue to be reflected in some of her current work. "Since I was a child, I have always loved art. Growing up on an 18 acre lemon ranch in Santa Barbara, I was continually outside in the creek or horseback riding in the backcountry during which I gained a great love for nature. When I went to College, there was never any question that I would study art. In graduate school, I concentrated on printmaking (etching), but after I was introduced to woodblock relief printing (woodcuts), I was hooked and have worked in that media ever since. At the same time, after a trip to Italy, I also fell in love with the beauty and permanency of the ancient art of mosaics. While I experimented with many different art techniques, I discovered my enthusiasm truly was for woodblock printmaking and mosaics, and that has continued until this day. Essentially, my style of woodcut prints has remained much the same throughout the years, although I am always seeing new things with new ideas and am working on different subjects. I like to focus on a particular subject and work on a series of related original prints, always nature related. I have done groups of water- and land-scapes, flowers, grasses, wildlife, and other wild things. Since I spend much time in Montana, that land of seasonal changes, much of my work reflects the inspiration (particularly wildlife) I get from these frequent visits. One of my favorite quotes that motivated my feelings about wild things is by Chief Seattle, Chief of the Suquasmash Indians in Washington State, who wrote in 1851,
“What is man without the beasts? If all the beasts were gone, man would die from a great loneliness of the spirit. For whatever happens to the beasts, soon happens to man. All things are connected.”"
Jacquemain is the founder and inspiration behind the Wildling Art Museum located in Solvang, California in the Santa Ynez Valley. She and her husband Dave started the Museum with 12 close friends and collegues in 1997. She was featured in an article in Westways, the Automobile Club of Southern California's membership magazine for which she was interviewed about what inspired her to found the Wildling Art Museum which was then exhibiting the cover art of early Westways magazines. In 2012 she was honored by the Board of Directors by awarding her the Wilderness Spriit Award. She and her husband also founded the Creekspirit Wildlife Foundation in 2003 to promote private support for the preservation of wildlife in California and the West. Jacquemain has received several commissions to design and develop mosaic murals that are currently installed at Santa Barbara's Cottage Hospital and the Goleta Valley Cottage Hospital, First Presbyterian Church, Santa Barbara Maritime Musweum, Wildling Museum of Art and Nature, and the Santa Barbara Botanic Gardens as well as other public and private collections, and at her own private Creekspirit Garden of Art. Jacquemain is featured in a new documentary film entitled "The Artist and the Great Bear" that was screened at the 2018 Santa Barbara International Film Festival.