Finding Art in Medicine

Exhibit showcases department chair’s life in wood, canvas

For 65 of his 80 years, Dr. John Jackson has used hands and intellect to build airplanes and houses, carve birds, draw and paint.

Jackson found art, or art found him, at every turn of his life. In 1943, he began taking painting and drawing lessons from a woman his mother knew in Kosciusko. It is the pieces from this period, saved by his mother, that represent the earliest work in a 65-year retrospective of Jackson’s art and crafts that will be on exhibit at the Cedars in Jackson, 4145 Old Canton Road, from April 22-May 1. The works include oil paintings, water colors, pastel drawings and wood carvings.

Jackson retired in 1992 as professor of preventive medicine and chairman of the department at the Medical Center after 30 years on the faculty. In his professional life, he was a geneticist. In addition to overseeing his department, he also ran the cytogenetics laboratory. He was an active participant in the Human Genome Project even after his retirement and conducted research into the genetic origins of neuromuscular disorders.

He drew and painted during his undergraduate years at the University of Mississippi, four years of medical school at Tulane, an internship in Philadelphia, Pa., private practice in Minter City and two years in the Army. As an intern at Philadelphia General Hospital, “I spent the busiest year of my entire life going to art class once a week.” The Wannamaker Department store offered free lessons with the purchase of materials.

He and his wife, Mary, spent a year in Uppsala, Sweden, where he completed a fellowship in genetics. He painted scenes of the centuries-old city and cathedral and of Viking mounds. It was there he began woodcarving, which he took up seriously only after his retirement.

During a long battle with cancer he turned to writing instead of painting – perhaps the longest he’s ever gone without painting. He says he has enough rejection slips from that period of his life to paper a wall in his house.

Jackson likes to make what his head imagines, whether it’s detailing the feathers on a bird carved in wood or building an airplane – a backyard project that required 11 gallons of glue. He flew it frequently but eventually donated it to the Air and Space Museum in Huntsville, Ala.

The notion of the exhibit came to him during a period of introspection that occurred around the tragic circumstances of his brother’s death. Looking at the work he’s done in 65 years, he realized he had the story of his life in wood and on paper and canvas. But pragmatism also figured in the decision.

“I don’t have any room left for these things, and my children, nieces and nephews can only take so much.”

-Janis Quinn

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