Hole In The Wall Gallery, Ennis, Montana

Terry's first memories of an interest in art start at five years old, where she used her preferred media - pencils and crayons - to copy the Saturday morning cartoon characters she loved most. Later, in her grade-school years, she creatively re-interpreted the colors of her school assignments, and faced her first difficult experience as an artist: Teachers believed in staying inside the lines, not drawing witches with green faces and purple hair. Much later, when Terry's first child was born, she made sure her daughter understood the importance of being creative, inventive, and coloring outside the lines.

In college, Terry focused on her talents in graphic design and illustration, and she spent the next 15 years working for land planners and architects, illustrating project plans and presentations (mostly staying inside the lines). When land development slowed in the early 90's, she and her sister formed a successful decorative painting company providing faux-finishing, specialty painting, and mural painting services in the custom homes of Rancho Santa Fe, La Jolla, and Rancho Bernardo, California.

When her daughter began college illustration and figure drawing courses in 2005, Terry was inspired to delve even deeper into the art world and started classes in soft pastels and oils. Through many classes and workshops she has developed a career as an oil painter and has been interpreting her world through vivid color and painting outside the lines ever since. Terry currently lives in Bozeman, Montana, where she co-teaches and shares a studio with her daughter.

Artist Statement:

I have been blessed with many opportunities throughout the years to study with artists who have taken the time to encourage me to develop my skills as a professional painter. I am enjoying the process, but only recently have I come to realize how much my early years have influenced the subjects that attract me the most.

Having been raised in the rural areas of Imperial Valley, California, and Northwest Texas, my memories are filled with Four Square brick homes with big front porches, main streets with a corner drug store and soda fountain, neighborhood gas stations where a Coke was only 5 cents, and colorful cars with huge fins and endless, shiny chrome. Our family car was a yellow Ford station wagon, our telephone was on a party line and we had letters in our phone number. My mom wore hats and gloves with matching shoes, belts, and purses. I learned to type on a manual typewriter, our television was black-and-white, and our "modern" kitchen table was red Formica with chrome legs.

These images are starting to come out now, and I find myself attracted to the nostalgia of vintage cars and structures, farm animals and equipment, and figures of people fishing, swimming, walking the dog, and playing baseball. I love the era of Route 66, the colors of the southwest, and the iconic metaphors of America's mid-20th century. These images, along with my desire to express colors with a renewed energy, are what I hope to convey to you, my viewer.

Résumé:

Since 1971, Terry has attended numerous college, university, and extension courses for graphic design, drawing, illustration, figure drawing, airbrush, watercolor, pastel, and oil painting. She has also attended workshops with regionally and nationally-recognized artists, including Stan Miller, Alicia Sotherland, and Robert Moore.

While working as a graphic designer, Terry had the opportunity to live in Jakarta, Indonesia for a year in 1983, illustrating a large development project for the Minister of Indonesia. For many years Terry was also the director of planning graphics for civil engineering firms in Southern California. In the early 90's she co-created a specialty-painting business painting murals and faux-finishing for contractors and private residences.

Since 2005, Terry has focused all of her attention to the development of her God-given talents as a western and rural-imagery oil painter.

Shows and Awards:

Custer County Art Center's 2010 Traveling Collection

Two-Woman Show: "Finishing Touches," Bozeman, Montana, December 2010

Custer County Art Center: "31st Annual Southeast Montana Juried Show"

Four-Woman Show: "Four Perspectives," Escondido, California, June 2008

First Place, Mark Hill Art Demonstration, Escondido Art Association, November 2007

Best of Show and First Place, "Noah’s Art", Artists Gallery, August 2007

Manager’s Choice, Juried Show, 2007 Fine Art Competition, San Diego County Fair, June 2007

Special Award: San Dieguito Art Guild, Juried Show, 2007 Fine Art Competition, San Diego County Fair, June 2007

Best of Show, Juried Show, "By the Sea", Artists Gallery, June 2007

Invitational Exhibition, "Student Show 2007", Boehm Art Gallery, Palomar College, May 2007

First Place, Joe Garcia Art Demonstration, Escondido Art Association, January 2007

Second Place, Juried Show, "Colors of Fall", Artists Gallery, October 2006

First Place, Juried Show, Moffatt County Fine Art Competition, Craig, Colorado, 1982