by Janina Birtolo

For Sandra Jackoboice, art is all about sharing. “That’s the reason I paint,” she says with a bright smile. “I like to be able to share what I do. The woman who bought my painting of a big yellow hibiscus told me, ‘I just love to get up in the morning and look at it. It’s so sunny!’ That’s what I like.”

And, typically, that’s just the sort of reaction Jackoboice gets to her work. Whether it’s a painting of one of her oversize and incredibly detailed flowers or a scene from her many travels, her works strike a chord of recognition—the sense of getting lost in the blossom or the feeling of having traveled that particular road. Although realistic, they are personal enough to evoke a wonder that holds the eye and speaks to the soul.

Not bad for someone who once thought, “I’ll never use my art.” As that statement suggests, Jackoboice’s artistic path was a winding one that took her from dreams of being a fashion illustrator to the board of the International Association of Pastel Societies and an artist whose works are collected around the world.

Jackoboice’s first exposure to art came at an early age, when she would watch her commercial artist father at work. “There was always a drawing table in the middle of the room,” she recalls. “I would sit at his desk and draw. I was about six or seven years old, and I would draw borders around the papers.”

At the same age, Jackoboice was captivated by the illustrations in children’s books. As she got older, however, she discovered the Sheena of the Jungle comic books and found a new love. She started copying the pictures and dreamt of becoming an illustrator. She pursued her art through high school and had her very first painting exhibited at the University of Michigan. Fired up by art by this time, she decided to pursue a major in art at Michigan State University.

Then reality came calling. “I didn’t really like it,” Jackoboice says. “At that time, it was all fine art. You got all the basics, but I didn’t like the fine-art aspect. In drawing class, I was always elongating the people. I dropped out after the first semester of my second year.”

Jackoboice developed an entirely new focus at that point, that of wife and mother to two children. She dabbled in art from time to time, devising logos for companies or painting once in a while, but nothing serious. Then, in 1979, an artist friend came for a visit and noticed a painting of a swan that Jackoboice had just done as an anniversary present for her husband. “She told me, ‘You’d better pursue your art.’ That’s what got me back to school,” Jackoboice says.

Still, she wasn’t convinced that art was her future. Instead, she majored in communications to build the business she’d started to assist companies in developing more professional images. Art, however, refused to be ignored. “I finished all the required courses but had some electives to fill,” says Jackoboice. “So I went back to the art department—and I got hooked. I stayed an extra semester to get a complete minor in art.”

Although the art minor got her painting again, her artistic journey still had some twists in the road. Two months after graduation, she was hired by the Franciscan Life Process Center in Lowell, Michigan, and asked to start some sort of art program. Jackoboice decided to start an artist-in-residence program, modeled on one she’d seen during a trip to Florida’s east coast. The program was a great success and led to other ideas.

“I had the most wonderful boss,” she says. “I would come up with these hare-brained ideas, and her answer was always, ‘Well, let’s try it. If it doesn’t work, we won’t do it again.’”

That relationship lasted until 1999, when Jackoboice and her husband bought a home in Naples and decided to spend more time in Florida. The retirement left her with more time to devote to her own art—and she did so with great enthusiasm.

Like her life, Jackoboice’s art reflects her wide-ranging curiosity and willingness to try things. She works in pastels, acrylics, and a combination of both. Her subject matter ranges from flowers to people to landscapes from places she has traveled. The variety is essential, as she proclaims on one of her artist’s handouts.

“The reason I wrote that,” she says, “was because someone once asked, ‘Why don’t you stick to one thing?’ Well, what if someone likes one of my pastels but doesn’t want glass? I wouldn’t be able to help them.”

Instead, Jackoboice might offer to recreate the piece in acrylic or in pastels and acrylic—or in a new technique she’s developed of doing pastels directly on canvas, alternating layers of pastels and an acrylic fixative. The new process, she explains, allows her to retain the softness and immediacy of pastel work but does away with the necessity for a covering of glass. “The work has been quite well accepted,” she says modestly.

That acceptance comes not so much from the new process as from Jackoboice’s talent. Her paintings of children or Buddhist nuns leave viewers feeling they have come face-to-face with the subject. Her landscapes pulse with vibrancy; you seem to hear the birds in the distance or the waves crashing on the shore.

And her flowers are marvels of detail that beg for contemplation. “Save room for the flowers that are a reminder of beauty in a world of turmoil,” Jackoboice says. “I like to get to the heart of them.”

That’s exactly what she does, pulling the viewer right along with her. This is art—and an artist—that’s definitely in full bloom. And that is something well worth sharing.

Sandra Jackoboice is a co-founder of both the Great Lakes Pastel Society and the Southwest Florida Pastel Society. Her works are displayed at Sweet Art Gallery and at her studio, both in Naples. For more information, visit www.skjackoboice.com.

Freelance writer Janina Birtolo is a frequent contributor to Times of the Islands and RSW Living.