CJ Jacobson is an artist.

Not a musician who paints, not an editor who makes music — an artist working across whatever medium is in front of him.

"Give me a tuba, I'll get you something out of it." — John Lennon

He's been at it since he was a kid — playing out in Philadelphia at fourteen with the late Greg Foreman (Cat Power). The through-line was never the medium. It was the making.

In his twenties he came up as a coordinator at MTV, and the craziness that comes with it — going to a jail in Memphis to put on a Steve Earle show, then flying back to New York the same day to put on a Black Crowes concert at the Bitter End. He's always been dancing across experiences.

While in New York, CJ got the opportunity to scout for James Dowdall of Epic Records, where he listened to and met many people. He would meet people like Mike Doughty of Soul Coughing and be incredibly influenced by his work. He would become friends with producer Kenny Siegal, and would even learn a little more about production from experts like him. These moments were major learning curves — they produced who CJ would become, and helped him understand some of the mysteries of the music process. He still works by the credos he learned from those people in New York so many years ago.

By his early thirties, Jacobson was a freelance director and producer — MTV Networks, XM Satellite Radio, VH1, and other indies. He's directed and worked with people like Willie Nelson, Money Mark, Beck, and Sonic Youth, concepted projects and launches including G4, TV One, and MTV2, and concepted for Showtime, the Gantz brothers (Taxicab Confessions), and CBS.

Later, CJ moved to Hollywood and worked on editing and concepting movie marketing — things like Hulk and Bourne Identity — and was a creative director for co-branding ideas such as Burger King and Men in Black, and the Coca-Cola Screenplay Program.

CJ is also a fierce designer, and has worked in many aspects of design — everywhere from motion graphics for TV and film to mini homes and apparel. Jacobson has expanded this with his computer knowledge into designing digital tools. He's creating AI projects for clients. He stops short of calling himself an AI engineer — that's not what he is. He's a synthesist: someone who builds working systems from first principles and visual reasoning. His work is the credential. Currently developing several Muse-related inventions with provisional patents pending — work that could change the way we look at AI.

All this experience culminated in helping him develop as a fine artist, where he works in acrylic and paint pen on canvas and Bristol board.

He's an abstract realist in the most obscure way. Digital resources help CJ organize and produce the images that he then takes apart with his hands and eyes — a look through his machine, taken back by the human hand — using what early graffiti taught him and the gifted program at the Philadelphia School of the Arts, his academia and his street sense merged into something with history that's completely new.

Jacobson just completed The People's Artist (fifth place in his group).

Currently working on an LP that should be released Christmas 2026.

Every skill in this story — the directing, the design, the music, the painting, the tools — is available now to anyone who wants it, and you can see it all in one place, on his website. Ultimately, CJ's goal is to deliver what Bowie would call “sound and vision.”

"There's a part of him still renting Juno 106s at SIR, making sounds that make the engineers frown." — BH, 2026

CJ's artwork, apparel, and designs are on sale in the store section of this site.