Jack Dickerson was born in 1952 and grew up in Palisades Park, New Jersey. As an undergraduate at Rutgers University, Jack studied improvisational music and psychology. In 1980 he earned a master's degree in Art Therapy and Creativity Development from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, and in 1984 a doctorate in Counseling Psychology from Rutgers Graduate School of Education. While in school Jack performed as a guitarist and began developing his skills as a painter.

      The principles learned from playing improvisational music have informed Jack's approach to the other arts of psychotherapy and painting. All three disciplines require blending technical expertise, spontaneity and an openness to exploration. The practice of psychotherapy sensitized Jack to the importance of process and how an understanding of it deepens our ability to relate to people and the challenges they engage. "More important than how a person feels or acts on any given day is appreciating the developmental process they are pursuing over time. This also holds true for an artist's path to creative expression and currently represents an important focus of my work."

Until recently, insight into an artist's creative process could usually only be gleaned from a retrospective study of the body of his or her life's work. In the Pegasus Process Jack has endeavored to share a process involving a single creative effort that occurred during a twelve month period in 2005-2006. It resulted in 67 images\stages of which six formal paintings can be viewed in Gallery III. "Although I think each of these paintings can stand on their own merits, it is my hope that seen in conjunction with each other viewers will have an opportunity to observe a larger compositional process, one that enhances their ability to relate with the art and the artist."

      Jack's abstract pieces seek an additional goal of engaging the viewer's imagination. "During the summer, as a young boy, I used to enjoy looking at the wood ceiling over my bed in the cabin we stayed in. The knots and grain of the pine boards contained a world of shapes and images if you were open to seeing them. Now I like to create images that allow people to find things of their own in my paintings - things which may differ from what I saw when composing it. Although this makes the viewer work a bit harder, it also allows the art to hold more surprises and interest over time."

Jack Dickerson currently resides in rural White Township, New Jersey.