A Little Cause at Heart: Jacob Rolfe

Cat on Bike State

Every now and then we come across art that makes us pause and think. Jacob Rolfe’s work does that while tickling your fancy. Screen-printing artist Rolfe, uses his art to raise his voice about causes close to his heart: mainly the environment.

Farms Feed Cities

His characters may not always be human, but his causes most certainly are.

A Dream (Part III)

“The characters I use are animals; I don’t like using people very much, because animals are more interesting.”

Wheel of Deluded Existence

Deriving encouragement from his family, and with education in political science, Rolfe took a few tertiary classes in printmaking at the Nova Scotia School of Arts and Design.

Interdimensional Birds

“I read a lot of Chomsky, and that may also have influenced my ideas somewhat. I’ve more of an egalitarian-socialist approach. Some of my prints will reflect that. What I was printing right after school wasn’t too overtly political.”

Market Forces

Rolfe starts his creative process by drawing in his sketchbook with a pen, and then transfers it to the computer to clean it up and figure out the colours. Then he uses Photoshop to create a layer that overlaps and works together with the other layers.

Rolfe's Sketchbook

Rolfe’s art inspires change and reflects his optimism about human capability to change.

Whale State XVIII

“I’ve sometimes been interested in how public opinion changes.”

Chemical Structures

Most of his work is a stand-alone piece of art. It sometimes follows the same theme and may become a part of a series, but mostly he works on individual pieces.

Fire Wolf

Sometimes the viewer will see a story in a series of his pictures, but there’s no conscious underlying narrative to them. In general, things are not particularly pre-conceived to fit into a certain theme or series. Rolfe, however, welcomes the viewer’s interpretation of his work and does not wish to force upon them his own ideas. His prints are abstract and can offer a number of interpretations.

Wave and Cloud

“Some people just walk right by and don’t even look at it, but some people will really like it and they will come up to me and let me know of it.”

Cats Pyjamas

Sometimes, he will have an idea that he wants to draw; for instance, the cat on a bicycle.

“Sometimes, ideas are buried in a sketchbook and they never make it to the printmaking stage.”

Whale State XXXVI

Rolfe says his art is not really graphic art, but it’s graphic, and it’s art. Whether graphic art or not, it certainly is head-turning art.