Honora Jacob
"The Lexington artist Honora Jacob seems to be taking her place on this continuum in “Myths, Legends and Lore,” a striking set of oil-and-gold-leaf portraits of women of history and legend at the Lexington Art League (LAL) . Like Holbein, she understands the power of the direct, largely straight-on, essentially confrontational gaze. And like Wiley, she appreciates the ability of classic endpaper, wallpaper and textile designs (of the sort associated with William Morris, among others) to convey richness and complexity and add visual interest. (Jacob seems to agree with Georgia O’Keeffe, who once described her art practice as “filling a space in a beautiful way.”) To these influences, she has added certain tropes of medieval, Renaissance and Byzantine art, in particular luxurious gold leaf and icon-like spheres that frame the faces in most of these portraits. Divinity is not implied here, presumably, but perhaps something like sainthood, even a kind of queenship, with or without geographical realms to rule.
