"Terry portrays the things that define us. Instead of an oral history, he creates a visual history of the families and stories of Nelson County."
--Beth Nichols, "The Daily Progress", Charlottesville, VA

"Terry has...a world-view---a coherent thematic approach buried in the Southern gothic sensibility of narrative, memory, and moral complexities...Terry's deft crosshatchings and clever arrangements of words and images evoke a milieu that mixes irony and wonder."
--Chuck Twardy, The News & Observer

To be honest (if not particularly unique among Southerners my age), I've always been markedly leery of being labeled as a "Southern Artist". Actually, the first "label" I found myself running into was "Southern-Gothic Artist". I still remember the first time the art director of the then-fairly-new Oxford American Magazine telephoned to commission a portrait of Savannah's Julian Greene. She gave me the run-down on Greene (I vaguely knew of him through, oddly enough, French connections....the French still adore him and think he's just-loads better than Faulkner..). I was thrilled, of course, to be commissioned by that magazine. Still?...I hung up the telephone, and (recalling her comment "It's PERFECT for you!) I thought "Wait?....a self-tortured, closet-homosexual with a bigass Savannah trust fund,.. who goes off to France in the late 20's, becomes an ultra-fervent Roman Catholic convert, publishes his ante-bellum romance-novels ONLY in French for some decades, and then dies alone?....How did this get to be my 'perfect-for-you!' designated-gig?".... About six years ago, though, I finally knuckled-down and, in the introductory notes for a gallery show, wrote "Having evaded the label 'Southern Artist' for years, I've come to recognize that it's just my personal tar-baby, and I might as well embrace it".

The final fact is that I am irretrievably Southern....born and raised in an environment & family where a knowledge of both social and natural history were sort of....just expected?....of everyone?

I'm lucky in that, over the past twenty years, I've worked with/for/& about any number of Southern writers, musicians, historians, editors, publications, etc. These past years, I've remained utterly conscious that my "Southern" landscapes and portraits are what sells in France and Germany ( Bluntly?...I make my living as an artist and am unedifyingly factual when it comes to assessing the demographics of my clientele).

That said? Even I (at my most evasive) will note that my best work and, for that matter, greatest success has ALWAYS proceeded from either Southern content or (more interestingly) just that danged old "Southern" viewpoint.

Call it a "Southern Viewpoint"...or "perspective" or whatever (I leave that to the critics)...but it does seem the one constant in my work over the years. Please take the time to scroll down on each image to read the notes (I know, a picture is worth a thousand words...so I generally cough up at least 750 .)

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