Artospective: Paintings by Terry Strickland from United States.

It's A Mans World.

An Interview with Terry Strickland.

Who and where are you from?

Terry Strickland, from Birmingham, Alabama, in the United States.

How you got into this?

I was born in Florida and raised on the Space Coast. After graduating from the University of Central Florida with a BFA in Graphic Design, I had an interesting and varied art career, working in the imprinted sportswear, gaming and publishing industries, as well as courtroom sketch artist. I always painted on the side, but in 2005 quit commercial art to paint full time.

What is your driving force?

My paintings begin as personal inspirations and narratives, but I have discovered that once they are translated with paint, they become universal stories, and my models become stand-ins for everyman. When people from different backgrounds respond with empathy to the situations in my paintings or when they identify with the models, I realize how much more alike than different we humans are. Communication and self-expression, I suppose. I love to paint and know I’m doing what I’m supposed to be doing.

What kind of work you do and why?

I consider my work Post-Contemporary Realism. While my paintings are highly realistic, they’re also conceptual and both aspects are important to me. I explore the idea that change is turbulent and painful and is the one constant in life. This can be seen in evolving personal relationships, dramatic weather pattern shifts, and during times of social upheaval and cultural change. The ongoing Incognito Project is at the heart of much of my work. I play with the concept that a choice of costume can reveal or conceal. Other themes include thoughts on relationships, love, and death. Many times I will use fairy tales, myths or pop culture references to get at those themes.

The one constant in my work is human connection. My favorite way to paint a model is boldly and unabashedly making eye contact. There is a magical point in every painting process when the paint becomes a person. Oil and minerals slathered around the canvas are transformed into a person looking back at me. Since eye contact activates the dopaminergic centers in the brain, whether it is eye contact with a real person or a painted image, I admit it must be an addiction with me.

My ideas start with a wisp of something provocative to me. It could be a sentence from a conversation, a book, song lyrics, or a visual cue from a person, or nature. I journal thoughts and ideas so that they don’t slip away. The ideas build on each other, associations are made and concepts come together in my mind. This process doesn’t seem to want to be hurried and will present itself with time. Next I find a model to match a concept then I begin the long process of designing the piece, collecting props, putting it all together and finally get to the painting stage.