Jackson (d. 2006) grew up in Chagrin Falls and attended the Cleveland Institute of Art, graduating
with a painting major and a drawing minor in 1977. Later that year he moved to Philadelphia, where he developed a business in historical carpentry, and became increasingly interested in sculpture in the round — independent of the wall and painting.

In 1991, Jackson returned to Cleveland whose “decaying infrastructure” served as “both a subject and source of materials” for his works. He cofounded NewCelle, an experimental drawing/painting group with Ed Mieczkowski and Bea Mitchell which was honored with an AAWR exhibition in 2017. Jackson exhibited extensively, and his work is included in the permanent collections of Zygote Press, the Cleveland Institute of Art, the Cleveland Clinic and the Cleveland Museum of Art