Peculiar Creature
There is an art to making tiny objets that requires intensity, skill, and an adoration for detail. Wood carver Janel Jacobson has all of those traits, and puts them to use in crafting some of the most sublime miniature sculptures in North America.
Janel is a recognized Netsuke carver, and one of the few outside of Japan to have taken that art form and brought her own personal touch to this traditional craft. Her meticulous personality blossoms into soulful and sublime renditions of nature, whether rabbits, moths, frogs, or other little critters. Branches of trees, seed pods, all the minutiae of life that can otherwise be missed for the forest are given care and loving attention as she uses an array of tools to carve and release these beings from their shell of wood and bark.
Free to roam and delight the eye, Janel's creations are wondrous because of the intersection between realism and character. Each piece is unique and tells a story, whether a joyful flop-eared rabbit romping through space, or a quiet moth nestled within the fold of a leaf. The gentleness and spontaneity of nature is what Janel seeks to remind us of, and in doing so gives us a little oasis of contemplation.