Joyce Terres

Business Name: Joyce Terres, Mixed Media Artist
Type of Work: Mixed Media

Contact Information

Email: joyceterres@gmail.com

Biography

My approach to artmaking at this stage of my life is exploration. As a re-emerging artist, I’ve found joy in experimenting with various mediums and styles. Art, like life itself, is a journey and is most enjoyable when we allow ourselves to take risks. I love to find beauty in uncommon places. I’ve often learned that what I may see as ugly or a mistake is a path to a new discovery and a new viewpoint.

I use various mediums in my artwork and especially love to combine mediums and to use materials that might otherwise be trashed. Sometimes my work is very whimsical and other times it is quite serious. I believe that art can and should make us see life differently, and that is what I aspire to do with my artmaking.

For many reasons, my life journey never followed a straight path. Though art was a thread woven throughout my journey, it was broken in many places. My first memory of discovering the joy of art in its many forms was from my junior high art teacher who showed me that art was more than simply drawing pretty pictures and that there were so many different ways to make art. I continued taking art classes throughout high school, finding joy in working with many different mediums. But I attended a college without an art program, pursuing social work as a goal in order to help people. Along the way, I discovered art therapy – a way to combine my love of art and helping people – and obtained a master’s degree in that field. Rather than pursuing art therapy as a career, I discovered law as another way to help people. I practiced law for 28 years and became consumed with parenting my children and working in this high-stress field. It was only after becoming an empty nester that I rekindled my love of art. After my son passed away from an opioid overdose, my world turned upside down. I knew that practicing law was no longer my passion and was able to retire early. Art has now replaced law as my vocation and passion as well as a means of healing and expression.