Artisan Pages:
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About the Artist
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Terri Walters received her Bachelor's Degree in Art Education at the University of Idaho and is certified in Washington and Idaho to teach K-12 grades. She lives in a small rural town on the rolling hills of the Palouse Prairie, where she assists her husband, Craig, with his agricultural research business ond their family farm. Together, Craig and Terri have a studio at Artisans at the Dahmen Barn where she does functional wheel thrown pottery and he does ceramic handbuilding and crafts custom glazes. Terri offers private tutoring and group instruction in various art forms, including drawing, watercolor and ceramics at the artisan barn.
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Artist Statement
To be awed by the inexhaustible beauty in the common, be intrigued by the mystery in the normal, and to marvel at the extraordinary in the ordinary. We are all continuously surrounded by miracles – manifestations of the Divine in our world. The process of making art is, for me, a way to step back from the mad rush of time and activity and take hold of the moment. When I really stop to look at the world and life around me, I stand in amazed curiosity. For me, art is not about creating. Instead, it is my attempt to capture those unique moments of clarity and give them form. The Greek philosopher, Heraclitus, said, “You can’t step into the same river twice.” Neither, I would add, can you paint the same river twice. In all of eternity, no two moments are the same. Nor do two people ever see the same thing. With every second that passes, our temporal perspective is instantly gone. Although it is rarely about a specific place or a specific person, my art deals with everyday, universal subject matter in its natural context. The essence of a thing, that wonderful moment of clarity and passion, is lost in posturing. I search for the essence of a thing or clarity in understanding and I try to redeem that instant, through watercolor, pencil, or any other medium with which I am working. Sometimes I gain insight through observation of detail, careful study, and accuracy in recording. More often I gain insight through the process of abstraction and simplification. I am driven by curiosity. My philosophy is, “So much to learn and try; so little time.” Learning to see as an artist trains me to redeem a few of those fleeting moments before they are lost. I hope that my art in turn will cause the viewer to be more aware of the beauty in the common things in their own familiar world, to become curious about the things we all take so for granted, and to stand amazed at the “extra”-ordinary.
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My little corner of the world
My studio space at the Dahmen Barn is one of my favorite personal spaces. On the west side, I have a whole wall filled with windows and work space. But even better than the physical space is the incredible sense of community and energy created with the other artisans!
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