Making Art, Making Life

Part II-Terry

Terry recalls his first reaction to the beauty of form and color as he looked at the lights of the family Christmas tree when he was a toddler. He pictured himself within the decorated tree. moving through it, absorbing the colors, being transported by them. Though powerful enough to remember vividly still, he was not motivated by the experience to pursue the arts as a child. Instead, during most of his childhood and teen years he immersed himself in various sports, especially golf, which he played most days during the summer months.

Sensitivity to the world of art bloomed later while pursuing a medical degree at the University of Bologna, Italy. Then, as he explored the streets of Bologna, Florence and his chosen residence in Montebeni, he discovered the exquisite beauty of Italian art and architecture and began to photograph the scenes that surrounded him. Once opened to the possibilities of art, he began to draw as well. After a day of classes and study, he sat at his kitchen table in Montebeni, just outside of Florence, and sketched small studies of Italian vistas or human subjects. Many years later we discovered these early drawings in a box of his memorabilia and compiled them in booklets to protect and save them.

Terry’s Uncle Ed was a professional artist and no doubt an inspiration, though he worked within the boundaries of realism. But Terry’s memory of his early Christmas tree adventure still resonated, inspiring him many years later to explore the possibilities of form and color. The abstract works of Italian artist Alberto Burri further influenced Terry to focus on non-representational art. So in spite of his strenuous schedule Terry produced a significant number of paintings during his ten years in Italy, mostly non-representational but occasionally diverting to realism or quasi-realism in representations of the Italian landscape. These remained in Italy, dispersed among people he knew there, due to the stringent restrictions against shipping artworks out of the country. I was delighted to see some of them when we visited the home of his long time friend, Elga Pasquini.

Across the past several decades, while carrying on his medical practice in the U S, Terry spent leisure hours painting, often late into the night, and we now have 170 of his works either stored or hung in our house in Italy. A couple of them are shown below.

We attempted to ship a few select paintings back from Italy to Hickory but were foiled at the last minute so when we arrived it was sans a single painting to hang. The expansive, empty walls of our townhouse cried out for art and, fortunately, a lower level area was available where Terry could store his supplies and paint with abandon.

It was not ideal as he normally attached canvases to a wall where he could stand before them to work, but here the walls were finished and not suitable for the possibility of exuberant smears of paint onto their surface. Instead, he lays a canvas on the floor and must kneel and crouch as he works. In spite of the awkwardness Terry continues to produce art work and we now enjoy his new paintings hung on our townhouse walls.

The first of his Hickory paintings hangs in our living room.

Titles Terry gives to his works are always engaging. The convuluted lines of this painting suggest a maze of sorts and, indeed, if you were to get in, then what? I was surprised to see a very similar work posted on an online site describing this year’s increased use of color in home design–it was so similar, in fact, that the painting shown could have been done by Terry or his alter ego. For a number of reasons I couldn’t post a photo of it but imagine the same all over curvilinearity and color tones, varying in the composition but little more.

Terry’s second painting replaced my attempt at abstract painting in the entry way hall and makes a much greater impact than my meager effort did.

Although abstract, you can intuit the birth and development of a poem here. Terry has a propensity for imaginative titles reflecting his inspiration, but he feels that they act as a guide for a viewer as well.

For a long time Terry talked about wanting to paint his reaction to the night we met. Now we have that painting.

He referenced me explicity by incorporating collage, my new hobby. When I asked him what he wanted to express in this work, he answered that it depicts the rush of vibrant new color into his life. It hangs in the landing of the stairway to the second floor, where it can be appreciated from above and below.

And now he is at work on his latest painting.

This painting is a work in progress, something artists usually don’t care to reveal. A pastel and rather abstracted orchard is taking shape on the canvas and, like all art works, as it develops becomes itself a platform for inspiration. In this work Terry felt a sense of Spain in the elements of light and in the form of the trees. Thus, “Margaret’s Orchard” became “Maguerita’s Orchard”. Now, for me, this lovely, pastel painting brings to mind the beautiful “Concierto de Aranjuez” by Joaquin Rodrigo, inspired by the gardens of Aranjuez, Spain.

And below, the final version of Margeurita’s Garden, now rolled up and put away as we anticipate our departure. We still have another month in our Hickory townhouse, but our plans to rent it while we’re away demand that the spaces where we worked on art be cleared for viewing by potential renters.

The cleared lower level can now suggest the possibiliity of a ping-pong table, or any other use imagined by a new occupant. My upper floor art space has reverted to an office, its original intent. We are saddened to abandon the possibility of another painting, another collage, as we begin a final month in Hickory preparing to return to Italy. The stretch of time in Hickory, and indeed the pandemic, led us to indulging in our hobbies on a regular basis. Now these works, these pieces of our life, will be left behind as we transition to our other home in Anghiari. Hickory’s motto is, “Life. Well Crafted,” and we are grateful that, yes, our time here was, overall, well crafted.

PostScript–Working Together

Terry and I had long discussed working together on a painting or creating companion pieces; these two collages brought that idea into being.

Though quite different, they were conceived to complement each other. We decided to use collage since I was now working in that medium and Terry wanted to try his hand at a form not very familiar to him.

The upper collage, mine, is inspired by the work of Spanish photographer Xavi Bou who digitally maneuvered sequential flights of birds to create patterns across the sky. While it looks like a painting, it is created entirely from paper. Terry’s collage below is paper superimposed on painted canvas. He cut each paper element freehand and simply arranged them to create a non-representational work expressing the idea of free floating ruminations.

Although we had talked before of working together, this is our first effort, a treat for us to do and, who knows, maybe there will be others. In our Italian home, Terry has a studio, which heretofore has been his alone. Now there is the prospect that I will join him there with my paper, scissors and glue.