EVELYN PATRICIA TERRY
Together Art and Sheer Love, Collaged screen print, etched lithograph on rag paper, 15”x21”, 2023
The collage, Together Art and Sheer Love, celebrates Evelyn Patricia Terry’s art career journey as pivotal to unearthing her “sheer love” pursuit. “Sheer Love,” first appeared as the title of Terry’s 1981 edition of 68 signed and numbered serigraph prints retrieved in 2014 from her attic. They had survived in excellent condition despite roof leaks, squirrels, and trapped birds over the years. A tilted heart, the edition’s central focus, consists of black and white reproductions of her larger multicolored paintings and drawings. The images reference the thematic complexities of relationships, politics, intimacy, and art. Most of the recovered prints were repurposed to become pages for a series of approximately thirty handmade books. Of the remaining few, print # 37 combined three printmaking processes - serigraphy, etching, and lithography to become a collage. Remnants of varied abstract figure groups, leftover from the bookmaking project, added density and visual vibrancy throughout the composition. From available etchings, Terry collaged an image of herself at 16 years old on the left, her grandfather, her grandmother, a bed scene in the middle, and her mother on the right. One of her lithographic prints provided an additional grouping of unknown figures collaged above the bed. The photographic images honor kindred ties, other relationships, and enhance visual textures.
Why Water Street?
It means a lot to have artwork in an organization that supports women's needs, especially in the face of so much pushback. Although many women and young girls may be influenced by perceived limitations of race, gender, age, and finances, I know that being encouraged in positive ways, such as this art initiative, is beneficial. Additionally, having once been commissioned to produce a 1994 poster for Planned Parenthood, I welcome this experience to contribute again.
More about the artist:
In her junior year at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Evelyn Patricia Terry learned of the art world from one of her Home Economic Department instructors. Andy Warhol and Pablo Picasso dominated the media in the 1960s. Although her art instructors focused on the artwork of predominantly non-Black male artists, her library research revealed unexpected information about African American artists, including women. An enlightening lecture by noted African American artist Faith Ringgold, visiting the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus in 1969, led Terry to travel to New York City to meet her in 1970. Terry embraced Ringgold’s activism and free exploration of various art practices, adding her to her initial influencers, Picasso and Warhol. Earning three printmaking degrees (BFA, MS and MFA) and working as a full-time professional artist since 1985, she freely explores drawing, printmaking, painting, site-specific installations, public art, found object assemblage, bookmaking, and collage. Her award-winning artwork, acquired nationally and in Japan, by private, corporate, university, and museum collections, has been shown widely, including a solo exhibition in Moscow, Russia in two US embassy galleries.
