Featured Artist Teresa Harrison

Teresa Harrison’s intricate drawings portray trees from a unique point of view. Enjoy her fascinating work and see more from this artist by visiting her website.

 

 

Ever since childhood, I exhibited the thinking and abilities of a “right-brained” person; always looking at things from an artistic point of view. I naturally gravitated to art, writing, and music, and throughout my life, I also felt a strong connection with trees.

 

 

I am a literal tree-hugger; I was the child who climbed trees; and I am the someone who champions the important cause of protecting them. I used to be an aggressive, sign-carrying, sit-in, protest-eager person, but I choose now to work for my causes in more peaceful ways. My hope is that my drawings will create a heightened awareness of trees and our need to protect them.

 

 

I received my BFA degree from the University of Kansas and had spent many years since struggling to find my true niche. I explored photography, painting, and crafting, but finally stumbled across my artistic passion when I sat down to capture the undulating roots, thick curves, and multidimensional qualities of the Florida fig trees I had photographed on vacation. Very quickly, I was combining my love for trees with the dramatic look that only the simple graphite pencil can produce.

 

 

Though I have always loved the trees, I now feel connected to them in new ways. I notice their shapes and textures all around me, and I love the challenge of capturing the three-dimensionality produced by so many different shadows inherent in the random angles of the branches. It’s hard not to draw all of them, and harder still trying to choose the next one to draw.

 

 

In local exhibitions, my work has been well-received and awarded, and after successfully combining one of my drawings with a chair frame and receiving positive feedback, I am currently preparing to expand the furniture theme by adding my trees to tables, bookcases, and cabinets. I would also love to see my drawings graduate into the art publishing world and am hopeful to move in that direction very soon.

 

 

Above all, I am most driven by my own reward in the pleasure and satisfaction that comes from the process of creating, and by the hope that donations from my art sales to the Arbor Day Foundation will help foster awareness and conservation.