Born in Aspen, Colorado, in 1958, Kathleen Jacobs attended Pine Manor College in Massachusetts, then obtained a degree in graphic design at Politecnico di Milano. There, she met the artist Huang Heiman, with whom she moved to China, where she lived between Beijing and Hong Kong from 1984 to 1988. There, she studied alongside Heiman’s father, the Chinese artist Huang Yongyu, a master of traditional Chinese painting and calligraphy. After her return to the United States in 1988, she began exploring encaustic printing, ceramics and welding at the Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Snowmass Village, Colorado.

Upon her return to Massachusetts in 2000, she pursued her artistic projects and her activity as an aerobatic pilot. Kathleen Jacob’s major project Clearing in Hillsdale, New York, lasted from 2012 to 2014. A veritable production of Kathleen Jacobs's creative process, a series of canvases stretched over the trunks of walnut trees was left to the mercy of the elements for two years. The Echos project is currently underway at TurnPark Art Space in West Stockbridge, Massachusetts, where Jacobs placed her art outside, in the park. Her work has been shown in numerous galleries and museums, including solo exhibitions at the Aspen Art Museum in Aspen, Colorado. Kathleen Jacobs lives and works in Great Barrington, Massachusetts.