After the Exhibition
Downtown Ann Arbor outside the Ann Arbor Art Center.
The juried exhibition “Displaced Spirit” ended Nov. 11 at the Ann Arbor Art Center, but the following day, a small selection of pieces from the show lingered briefly for a few minutes outside the center on Liberty Street. As Cathy Jacobs loaded up a van for transport of her work back home, The Chronicle happened by and had a chance to view her contributions to the show.
The exhibit was meant to celebrate the creative spirit that survives war and genocide. Works for the show were selected from 14 Michigan-based artists who endured forced displacement from their home countries whether directly through their own experience or that of their parents or grandparents.
Two of Jacobs’ works were painted in traditional oil about four years ago. She has since switched over to egg yolk tempera painting, which was popular back to the 1300s. The switch to tempera painting isn’t due to any kind of resurgence of popularity on the local Ann Arbor painting scene, but rather to a desire to avoid the fumes of oil paints. Jacobs has not availed herself of one of the new city of Ann Arbor chicken-keeping permits in order to obtain eggs for her art, but said that it is important to use fresh eggs. She gets hers from the farmers market or Whole Foods.
Cathy Jacobs with her painting (lying horizontal), "Caught in Adolescence."
Helping his friend Jacobs load the van was a gentleman many Ann Arborites would recognize more easily in front of a big pot of lobster bisque than holding a playing-card-themed tempera painting: Jules Van Dyck-Dobos, who with his wife is chef and owner of of Le Dog. Jules’ sense of taste isn’t limited to soup – he gets at least some of the credit for eliminating the clutter of an empty plastic crate from the photograph we’ve included in this piece.