“Mr. Jacobson” - a series

Mr. Jacobson — A new series about buried truth.

This project started as something heavy on my heart: can I use abstract painting carry important stories? And how?

So I just started. Started without a plan or knowing what would result.

For this series, done in May and June of 2026, I’m breaking my own rule and sharing more of the “artist’s” insights that were behind the work than I normally prefer.

I have a deep, longstanding affinity for the story and example of St. Joseph. As a middle schooler in CCD, I chose Joseph as my confirmation name. In recent years, as a husband and father facing unexpected challenges, his quiet strength has become essential to me. But I now see how all men today can be buoyed by his bravery, stewardship, and steady love for his family. These are more relevant in 2026 than ever—not as a distant bedtime story or ancient myth, but as the life of a man of few (more specifically, zero) recorded words who simply did what he was called to do by circumstances in the moment.

I titled the series Mr. Jacobson to show the foster father of God as I see him, as approachable as a friend living up the street. (And coyly nodding to his father’s name in the biblical genealogy.)

As I worked on this, I was surprised again and again by movements in my heart I didn’t expect—in the contemplation of the anxiety being felt in “Where?” (#2), the layers and trumpeting silence of “Here.”, the appearance of unplanned co-stars in “Flight” (#4), a happy accident in gold pour in “Hidden” (#5), and the profound joy of “Found” (#6).

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The set mentioned

True to the unlikely journey I’ve been on with oil painting, I was simply a passenger being directed by someone else. If the work doesn’t move you the same way, that’s probably me getting in the way of the directions. Judge for yourself.

Here is the first series of six paintings: Mr. Jacobson, Betrothed.

Betrothed

The series begins: Bold horizontal blue and black marks on a light ground, with subtle purple and pink tones — the strength of a man (with royal linage) facing uncertainty, held within a call to holiness

Where?

Next painting: A vertical, real but unseen pillar rises alongside those similar horizontal blue and black marks. This is the measure of a man on a mission with his pregnant wife: natural anxiety held inside a vessel that is being tested. He reassures her that all will be well once they reach his family’s hometown. The role of provider is frustrated, but the inner tension never challenges the surrounding divinity. The question “Where?” finds its answer in the next painting.

Here.

On a slightly larger canvas, wrapped completely around the edges. A deeply layered silence, an infinite, textured field of deep blue with luminous hints pulsing lacross its surface, pierced only by a single humble white star. A quiet, camouflaged, subversive arrival. Here is “here.”

Flight

Earthy tones, warm surfaces, and arid artifacts (made from still warm coffee grounds, randomly smeared to raw canvas) with a steep directional form rising, sheltering, leading — the urgent, faithful escape from a massacre and flight into the unknown.

Hidden

Unseen threats are kept from disturbing inner ,contemplative layers. Protection by a right angled, nearly invisible blue shielding a flowing encirclement which itself safeguards a luminous gold accent (Child‘s profile?)— the unseen daily work of protection, provision, and a Holy Family.

Found

The glowing culmination that draws colors and textures from the whole series (coffee grounds included)— the temple journey, reunion, and Joseph’s legacy of faithful manhood.

The series together— With frames (and the slightly larger “here.” with its gallery wrapped surface): Mr. Jacobson:

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