42. The Next Chapter of Betsy Jacks: Reframing the Second Half of Life

The Valley Girls are back for another exciting season! To kick off Season 4, The Valley Girls welcome back Betsy Jacks, a favorite guest from our episode exploring the Thomas Cole National Historic Site in Catskill, NY, to chat about her post-Cole life. (Spoiler alert: it’s still filled with beautiful art.) Betsy shares her new journey painting full-time and her work that, much like Cole’s, uses the glory of nature, and especially trees, to craft a narrative; in this case, a fresh narrative about women over 50 creating and curating fecund, vibrant, blossoming lives all their own.

More to explore:

• ⁠ExploreThomasCole.org⁠ - a labor of love from Betsy & team to let you get your nose right up to the paintings, too.

• Find Betsy at ⁠current & upcoming exhibitions⁠.

• Read more about ⁠Barbara Novak⁠, a pioneer in the study of American art

• Discover artist ⁠Kiki Smith⁠ and ⁠why you shouldn’t be afraid to make art⁠

A huge thank you to our Season 4 sponsor, Bryant Home Improvement!

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Episode music by Robert Burke Warren entitled Painting a Vast Blue Sky can be found at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠robertburkewarren.bandcamp.com/track/painting-a-vast-blue-sky⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.