Sacred artist Jacob Zumo could get his paintings in front of famous rappers, but he couldn’t paint his way out of feeling empty.
“I’m traveling, but I’m just like, there’s nothing to this,” Zumo said, describing his life amid celebrity commissions, money and nights out in an episode of EWTN’s LOST + FOUND released Aug. 28.
The Baton Rouge, Louisiana, painter told host Daniel Godinez that the success other people admired concealed a much messier reality. He struggled with drinking, an unhealthy relationship and the nagging question of what he actually offered the people he met beyond a flattering portrait.
His answer didn’t arrive in one tidy moment. A high school teacher, a men’s retreat, a year studying in Florence, Italy, and time caring for his grandmother helped him reconsider both his talent and the life he wanted to build.
Long before celebrity commissions, Zumo wanted to play basketball. His official biography traces those parallel interests in sports and art, including an athletic scholarship to Belhaven University and his eventual return to painting.
In the interview, he recalled finding something different in high school art teacher Carol Hackler’s classroom: attention that didn’t depend on his performance on the court. He began spending his free periods painting with her.
“I didn’t have to succeed or be awesome on the court,” he said, contrasting that relief with the pressure he put on himself to measure up as an athlete.
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“This lady was just giving me time because she was my teacher and she loved her students,” he remembered. Years later, he still recognized her care as a turning point.
Painting eventually opened doors in the music industry. He painted musical artists including Drake and Lil Wayne but later shifted toward sacred imagery.
Zumo made clear that professional momentum didn’t mean he had his life together. When his brother-in-law encouraged him to apply to a sacred art school in Florence, the application prompted a harder question: How was he using his access to influential people?
Zumo described the move as humbling, not simply glamorous. He arrived with emotional baggage and found himself learning alongside younger artists whose skills challenged his confidence.
Nor did returning home mean the work on his heart was finished. He recalled staying with his widowed grandmother, watching basketball, movies and Mother Angelica’s programs together while he continued wrestling with his choices.
Today, the priorities he described sound different. He and his wife, Haley, run the gallery together, but he considers being a husband and father his primary calling — not the painting business.
“Now she is my everything,” Zumo said of Haley while reflecting on how getting to know her changed the assumptions he once made about their future.
His work now creates room for other people’s faith conversations, too. His “Saints By Number” podcast brings together religious leaders, athletes, celebrities and everyday guests, while a 2025 diocesan event listing advertised a painting retreat at his gallery.
For Zumo, sacred art isn’t evidence that he has every spiritual answer. It’s part of how he keeps growing: “I’m learning through my art.”
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