Part 2: Close-Up Talk Radio spotlights artist Sandra K. Jackoboice

Naples, FL – The renowned French impressionist Claude Monet once said, "I perhaps owe having become a painter to flowers."

Sandra K. Jackoboice is a Florida-based artist and painter specializing primarily in pastel and water-based media. While accomplished in landscape and portraiture, Jackoboice is perhaps best known for her floral work, which expresses form and color but also a unique personality and substance.

“I don’t like to think of myself as a traditional floral artist; that implies a simply decorative motivation behind the work," says Jackoboice. "I choose flowers because they are complex, strong yet subtle and possess a quiet drama,”

Jackoboice was first inspired to pursue art by her father, a commercial artist. She received her degree in art and communication from Aquinas College, upon which she served as art program director for the Franciscan Life Process Center in Lowell, MI. Jackoboice has remained active as an artist and educator throughout her career, co-founding both the Great Lakes Pastel Society as well as the Southwest Florida Pastel Society.

“A lot of people think of pastels as chalk, but they’re not chalk,” explains Jackoboice. “They’re pure pigment bound together with water and rolled into sticks. I became interested in them in college. I liked the way pastels looked and I admired other artists who had used pastels like Monet.”

In 2004, Jackoboice experimented with a process that allows artists to use pastel on canvas, employing a liquid acrylic spray between layers of pastel to hold and set it, as well as a fixative that protects the painting.

“I came up with that process so people could enjoy working with pastels without the glass enclosure,” says Jackoboice. “My hope is it will encourage more people to appreciate art made with pastels.”