As a child, Karen Jacobsen dreamed of being an explorer, a naturalist, and an artist – as an adult, her dreams came true in the deep sea. She prefers to draw from real life, peering out of a small window on deep-sea submersible Alvin or on deck when the specimens are brought up. “I wish the viewer to become engaged by the features that engage me and that are important to the story the animal or environment has to tell,” says Karen.

Jacobsen attended the University of California, Santa Cruz, where she earned a BFA and was first introduced to SCUBA lessons, she continued and earned a Graduate certificate in Science Communications. She and Van Dover met in Woods Hole, when Van Dover was still a graduate student. In 1991, Ph.D. in hand, Dr. Van Dover invited Jacobsen on an oceanographic expedition and since then has explored vents in the eastern, southeastern, and southwestern Pacific, the northern Atlantic, and the Gulf of Mexico.