Recently Opened: An Exhibition of Paintings Inspired By Lax’s Poetry

Painter Abbey Ryan, whose parents were friends of Lax, traveled to Patmos in 2017 to visit his former home and complete a series of paintings loosely based on his poem “the light / the shade.” Now, 14 landscapes and still lifes from that series are on display in the Quick Center at St. Bonaventure University in Lax’s hometown, Olean, NY. The show runs March 25-June 2, 2019. Abbey will be on campus Thursday, April 11 for a 3 p.m. gallery talk.

You’ll find full information about the exhibit here–and more about Abbey and her Lax project here. If you like what you see and read, check out Abbey’s website, where you can view (and purchase!) more of her magnificent works.

Abbey’s work has been featured in a number of publications, including Oprah Magazine, Seth Godin’s Linchpin: Are You Indispensible?, FOX’s Good Day Philadelphia, BoingBoing, Artists & Illustrators, Making It In the Art World, New Markets For Artists, Fine Art Connoisseur, American Art Collector, and The Philadelphia Inquirer. Her art is in more than 1,300 private and museum collections on six continents.

A Lax Exhibit at St. Bonaventure University Features Harry Jackson’s Life-Size Portrait

A couple of months ago, I made a post about the life-size painting of Lax done by Harry Jackson back in 1962 (see the original post).  I said in my post that I didn’t know where the painting is now.  Well, at this moment, it is in an exhibit of Lax’s writings and photographs at the Quick Center for the Arts at St. Bonaventure University, thanks to the generosity of Lax’s niece Marcia Kelly and her husband Jack.  You can read about the exhibit here.  Normally, it hangs in the Harry Jackson Institute in Cody, Wyoming.  Here’s the title card:

For those of you going to the International Thomas Merton Society conference at St. Bonaventure this June, be sure to stop by the Center for a look.  The exhibit just opened this month, so I’m sure it will still be around then.  Here are a couple more looks: