05/21/2026
CREATE member Besty Jacks' (.jacks) painting "The Return, After Thomas Cole," on view in "Here For You" at CCE CG, a group exhibition on care and connection comprised of artworks by fifteen artists from Columbia and Greene County.
"This artwork is based on Thomas Cole paintings, which include messages of caring, as expressed by the trees. I believe Cole used his foreground trees to embody his emotions, as he empathized with them to an extreme degree. In a poem, he described the woods as “a silent people,” and Cole, in looking at them, was “entranced in thoughts too glad for utterance.” The painting is inspired by “The Return”, in which a wounded knight returns home. In the foreground, Cole has inserted a plantain plant, used for millennia for healing, especially to halt bleeding in wounds. In my painting, I have enlarged the healing herb and included other symbols of caretaking and hope that Cole depicted, such as the golden sky, the spires of a cathedral, and birds taking flight. The trees themselves are engaged in a complex embrace of care."
- Betsy Jacks, 2026
Oil and acrylic on canvas
30 x 40 inches
CREATE offsite • Here For You
May 9–June 30, 2026
Cornell Cooperative Extension Columbia and Green Counties
Agroforestry Resource Center
6055 Route 23, Acra, NY 12405
8:30 am-4:00 pm weekdays (closed for lunch 12:00-12:30 pm)
