1st Anniversary of Harry Jackson’s passing

It was today, a year ago, just before 5 pm that my father, Harry Jackson,  passed away.  It has been quite busy in the year since then.  I have just returned from a 3 week stay at his home and studio in Italy.  We children were all born overseas and grew up at the house in Italy (ok, that is an oversimplification but, believe me to keep this a post and not a novel, it must be done).  I was in Italy at the same time Chloe and Luke were there, and we went out to dinner and toasted our dad on his birthday.  We toasted Molly and Jesse and our combined mothers, Sarah and Tina, who were all back in the States.  My son Finn went on the trip with me – a member of the next Jackson generation – and his sister Solie took this picture of Harry a few years ago.  Molly’s daughters Emily and Julia were also in our thoughts on the evening of dad’s birthday.

I have certainly become more familiar with both dad’s art and his life in the last two years. I came back to work here at Harry Jackson Studios when he became sick in April of 2010. I have now seen art that I’d never seen before and reconnected with much that I’d forgotten.  His life was incredibly full and he lived it on the edge.  There are lots and lots of materials, such as letters, journals, magazine and newspaper clippings, which can be studied because he did not throw away such items.  There is so much information that needs to get out, to be communicated, to be dispersed via the web, but there have been other priorities in the short term.

I hope that soon the estate will be able to look and move forward, and begin the job of continuing and illustrating the depth of Harry Jackson’s legacy through communication, through research, and through shows of his art.  Slowly, it does begin to seem as if a new dawn is approaching when we will be able to turn our attention to the legacy of Harry Jackson, sharing it and growing it, instead of filling out lots and lots of paperwork about it.

It can get so busy that one can forget the person who did all of this and built the legacy and estate.  Harry Jackson will not be forgotten and his legacy will live on.

Matthew Jackson
4/25/2012