Life & Work with Dan Terry of Southwest, Austin
Today we’d like to introduce you to Dan Terry.
Hi Dan, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story? National award winning artist, Dan Terry (1951- ) loved the arts from early childhood, inspired by Disney’s Fantasia. Seeing Michaelangelo’s Pieta at eleven inspired a passion for the Renaissance masters. Terry echoed DaVinci’s curiosity for art, science, engineering and nature. Rembrandt, Monet & the Impressionists were strong influences. Despite early recognition and national first place awards in painting and animation, employment in printing and museums, plus college, then teaching (in Journalism) took precedence over painting until his late 40s, when his talents led to work in the film and television industries, as Production and Art Designer for several feature films, producer and director in others
Wow. Loaded question. Brought up in poverty by a violent, alcoholic parent, it’s enough to say that struggles with self-understanding, self-sabotage and PTSD, and later diagnosed with bi-polar disorder has been a lifelong challenge. Without going into the many ways of adapting and coming to enough self-comprehension to overcome that rocky start, suffice it to say that trauma is the acorn that sprouts a creative lifestyle. In decades of art, music, and film work, what I’ve learned is that almost without exception every artist I’ve even known, comes from any of the many forms of abuse, trauma, psychological dysfunction and or poverty. Creativity thrives in such conditions as normal paths are unworkable.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others? As a creative, much like DaVinci as a role model and early influence, specializing in one creative realm is too limiting. So I’ve spent a life, pursuing a level of mastery across multiple art forms, not that I’ve achieved it in all or even just a few. The point was the pursuit not the objective, and the pursuit itself insured only that my skills, and knowledge advanced to higher levels. What that provided working in theater, fine arts, photography, animation, computer graphics, product and exhibition design, film, and music performance, was a pretty unique crossbreeding of creative knowledge across the wide spectrum of creative endeavor. For one example, producers in early theater involvement recognized an ability for drawing and painting, so I was drafted to help paint sets. That ultimately led to the mural work I’m most often known for as it too is simply painting at a massively large scale. One example of many that can only and best be learned when the right publisher is found for the book “An American DaVinci’s Quest for Mastery; Lessons in Creativity from a Lifetime in the Arts” I’m in the process of creating.
Can you talk to us about how you think about risk? Risk is so relative. What to one person seems very risky, to someone with fewer choices it may seem a less risky option. So when a colleague gave me $70 for an early painting one night and an offer to go to his father’s ranch about 1200 miles away in South Texas for an unspecified job with no promise of salary or even job description, that at the time was an easy option. What I was leaving behind was a known unpleasant and unpromising option, having at the time zero income, job, or cash, and living under a bridge in upstate New York as winter was coming. So it hardly felt like much of a risk to gather a few belongings, stick out my thumb and hitchhike into the south Texas desert near Normanna, where for the next few years I would live the life of, as one of the rancher’s wife referred to us as, “one of the ranch wetbacks”, taking care of the small cattle herd, growing the crops, building a barn, and protecting the livestock and property from ‘varmints’ like rattlesnakes, coyotes, foxes, scorpions, and parasites. It wasn’t much but it was better than freezing to death in a New York winter, and though the lodging was by any normal standard, primitive at best, it had a roof and adequate food. So it was a risk well worth taking. I ultimately learned how to be grateful for what I did have, regardless of how meager, something that has served me well when obstacles and misfortune revisited along the path.
Pricing:
- Portrait & Painting Commissions start at $1000
- Original Exhibition Paintings start at $2500 – 12500
- Mural Commissions begin at $1500 and average $15-20/sq foot
- Other creative services bill at $100/hour with a $500 minimum
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.danterryart.com/
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/danterry.art
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/danterryart
- LinkedIn: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1959347/
- Twitter: https://www.X.com/danl99
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@danlguitars
- Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/42022694
- Other: https://www.saatchiart.com/DanTerry and https://www.wescover.com/creator/dan-terry
Image Credits all paintings and photos of such by Dan Terry save for image in front of Hilton “Austin Bat Bridge Mural” copyright & used through grant of permission by Hilton, Inc.
