A Focus On Lyme Disease

Pain Unfiltered, 14x11" oil on panel

I've decided to focus much of my artwork this year on Lyme disease, creating a series of paintings that represents the disease and those who suffer with it. My personal struggle with chronic Lyme has motivated me to create a visual experience that publicly reveals the reality of this terrible disease. I'm partnering with local Lyme experts and venues to produce an exhibition that will be on view at three Warren County venues at the end of 2026 and into 2027, and will hopefully travel on from there.

I'm currently searching for 12 Warren County residents to help make this exhibition possible. I'm looking for people of varied ages and genders who have or had Lyme disease and are willing to share their stories with me. Each participant will be interviewed and photographed by me, after which I will produce a painting that represents that person's experience with Lyme disease.

If you or someone you know is interested, please email me at lynnshanksarts@gmail.com.

I have applied for a grant from the Lower Adirondack Regional Arts Council to hopefully support the effort. Here's a bit of that application to provide background and added details:

My project, Lyme Disease: The Whole Truth will raise awareness about Lyme disease, give a voice to those who suffer with the disease (often in silence) and demonstrate the cost of the illness to the Warren County community. It will bring to light the challenges of preventing, diagnosing, and treating for Lyme and co-infections, and the controversy that still surrounds the disease. The general public has a simplistic view of Lyme disease. The common belief is: you see that you were bit by a tick, a bullseye rash appears, you see your doctor, you take antibiotics, and you’re fine. Sometimes that is the case. However, Lyme, which can be accompanied by co-infections, is often far more complicated and elusive, and causes lasting consequences (cardiac, neurological, arthritic, gastrointestinal, and more). For many infected people, a diagnosis takes years, only after seeing a half-dozen or more specialists. It leaves them feeling dismissed, doubting their reality, and with little faith in the medical community. For some, late diagnosis can mean a lifetime of pain and illness, disability, and economic hardship. Art can be an incredibly powerful vehicle for learning and change, as it can evoke emotion in ways that words and graphs alone cannot. My hope is that bringing attention to this issue through a combination of visual art, personal stories, and informational materials will further efforts to expand education, improve testing, and develop interventions that limit the long-term and serious consequences of Lyme disease for the residents of Warren County (and beyond). I also hope that those suffering from Lyme disease will feel empowered and heard, and know they are not alone. The project will be comprised of:

1)    Artwork:

I will create fifteen to twenty new paintings, some in acrylic and some in oil, that demonstrate the physical, emotional, and economic toll of Lyme disease on the individuals who suffer with it, and on the community as a whole. The form and content of each work will be based on personal experience (I suffer from chronic Lyme disease) and on interviews with approximately ten Warren County residents that I will seek out through networks in which I am involved. Where permission is granted, several of the paintings will be portraits of the Lyme patients, reflecting their journey, pain and loss, and/or their resilience in the face of challenge. These portraits will be representational but expressive – placing them in a context that depicts their personal experience. Non-portrait paintings will portray the disease through expressive realism that may in some seem abstracted – the disease’s hosts, its evasive and invasive nature, the damage it inflicts, and/or the various (often unconventional) forms of treatment. The painting sizes will range but will be at least 16 x 20 inches, with several larger, up to 36x24 inches. The substrate in some cases will be gallery wrapped canvas, while for others, a cotton muslin hung by a dowel from the ceiling.

2)    Personal Stories & Items:

Amidst the artwork will be panels with selected personal quotes or writings (journal entries, poems, etc.) from Lyme sufferers that tell their story. Some quotes will be collected during the interviews, and some from a larger group of local individuals who have experienced Lyme disease. I will request this input through my Lyme networks. In addition, I will collect items related to Lyme treatment and impact, such as pill and supplement bottles, medical paraphernalia, and personal items of the interviewees. I will create displays of these items that will be interspersed through the exhibition.

3)    Data/Education:

The expressive art and personal stories are intended to help viewers better understand the challenges of Lyme disease, empathize with those suffering with it, and be motivated to learn how to avoid a similar fate. As such, the project includes a direct, uncomplicated informational component. In partnership with Warren County Public Health and Dr. Holly Ahern of SUNY Adirondack, the exhibition will include wall panels and take-home materials on the prevalence of tick bites and the pathogens that cause disease in Warren County, along with instructions for prevention and diagnosis.