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Jacob Hardt was born in Grand Junction, Colorado, but grew up on Santa Monica Boulevard in LA and Polk Street in San Francisco. Working with the AIDS Office of the San Francisco Department of Public Health, Jacob spoke on behalf of the Wedge Program, the first HIV educational program in existence that brought people with AIDS into classrooms (the program ran form 1988 to 2002), and Health Initiatives for Youth (Hi-Fy), an agency that provides health workshops for at-risk youth throughout the San Francisco Bay Area (his poetry and photographs have appeared in Hi-Fy’s Reality Magazine). Jacob currently lives in New York City where he pursues writing, painting, and photography.
My art is my soul, the pieces of me which I can not communicate with words. I've had a wild ride of life, seen so many things. I've been pos most my life, I was 15yr old hustler. I grew up on the street alone trying to stab my pain out with a thousand needles and make my way through life with sex and drugs, they were my friends and my solution. I have seen unimaginable violence of all sorts. I have at times felt so alone I wanted to let go. I've been in prison, treatment centers and too many hospital beds. And I've seen such compassion kindness from the most unlikely people and love from strangers. I've literally built a family and a circle of unshakeable friends. I am happy and sober. All this I can say with words... but have so much more to express and explore. I'm not professionally trained and not well educated, honestly I've no idea what I'm doing when I paint, only that I have to do it. It's my personal and secret conversation, my friend... It's my passion.