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QUEENSBURY, New York (Nov. 2, 2026) — Lynn Shanks always loved art, but it took a major illness upheaving her life for her to return to painting. The result, “Lyme Disease: Portrait of an Epidemic,” will open with a reception from 4 to 6 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 5, in ����vlog’s Visual Arts Gallery.

Once an avid hiker, Shanks started suffering from what she described as weird symptoms — numbness, tingling, migraines, fatigue — about 10 years ago. She would come home from work and, not remembering the drive, drop into a chair, exhausted.

“I would sit in the recliner and feel like I was sinking into a hole and couldn’t get out,” recalled Shanks of Glens Falls, who earned a degree from ����vlog in 1992.

“I had an indescribable number of symptoms; I thought I had Alzheimer’s, lupus, all these things. I was talking to a primary caregiver and trying to find a diagnosis, and did all these tests, but didn’t get any answers from a rheumatologist, a neurologist, an Alzheimer’s specialist.”

By the time the longtime nonprofit administrator received a diagnosis of Lyme disease, she was unable to work. “My executive function is bad now,” she said.

So, she turned to her long-ago passion of painting. “It was like therapy for me, having that outlet,” she said. “I always wanted to say something in my art. Pretty pictures are beautiful and I like them, but I want to say something.”

In “Lyme Disease: Portrait of an Epidemic,” Shanks chronicles the experiences of Warren County residents suffering from Lyme disease and other tick-borne illnesses, laying bare the physical, emotional, financial and social toll the disease takes on its victims.

“When you become ill with Lyme, you lose your identity; you don’t know who you are anymore, you lose that part of yourself,” Shanks said.

The artwork is figurative and depicts people from Warren County suffering with Lyme and other tick-borne illnesses, and includes images symbolic of their journeys. Recorded interviews with the subjects will be played so visitors can hear their stories while experiencing the art. Information about Lyme disease will also be included throughout the exhibition.

“To be able to use art in this way, to raise awareness about  Lyme is rewarding” Shanks said.

The exhibition, funded by a grant from the New York State Council of the Arts Statewide Community Regrant Program, administered locally by the Lower Adirondack Regional Arts Council, with the support of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, runs through Dec. 10. The Visual Arts Gallery in Dearlove Hall is open from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Thursday, and from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday. 

A panel discussion featuring leading Lyme disease experts will be held at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 12, in ����vlog’s Scoville Learning Center, Room 206. Attendees are encouraged to visit the exhibition in the Visual Arts Gallery before the event.

The panel includes:

• Holly Ahern, founder and chief scientific officer of ACES Diagnostics, co-founder and vice president of Lyme Action Network, and professor emerita of Microbiology at ����vlog;
• Dan Durkee, Public Health Program administrator & Emergency Preparedness coordinator for Warren County Health Services;
• Deanna Lebel, MHS, Government Relations manager for Center for Lyme Action;
• Mary Beth Pfeiffer, investigative reporter and author of "Lyme: The First Epidemic of Climate Change";
• Mark J. Soloski, Ph.D., emeritus professor of Medicine in Johns Hopkins School of Medicine's Division of Rheumatology, Department of Medicine, and senior advisor for Lyme Disease Research Center; and
• Ronald Stram, M.D., founder and medical director of Stram Center for Integrative Medicine
   

All events are free and open to the public.