Reception Planned Feb. 9 for Exhibition of Laura Terry's Drawings and Prints in Vol Walker Hall

Artwork by Laura Terry

"Ground Strata #2" (2017) is included in the new exhibition of work by Laura Terry, on display through Feb. 17 in Vol Walker Hall. The work is pastel and graphite on paper and measures 18 by 28 inches.

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – A reception for an exhibition of works created by Laura Terry will be held at 4:30 p.m. Feb. 9 in the Fred and Mary Smith Exhibition Gallery in Vol Walker Hall on the University of Arkansas campus. Terry's works will be on display through Feb. 17. 

In this exhibition of new work, Terry, an associate professor of architecture, explores the changing landscape of the 35th parallel between the Ozarks and the Great Smoky Mountains through an abstract paper series using drawing, stitching and a printmaking technique called monoprinting. She drove the route in August 2016, and then she started creating the works nearly a year later in July 2017 after reflecting on the trip and doing additional research.

Some works came together quickly, just in a day, while others took much longer to perfect. Terry said that one work, the first piece she started with, wasn't completed until nearly six months later — the very last in the 25-work collection. There are 24 framed works, along with a continuous collaged strip of paper spanning multiple gallery walls called the "datum," which represents the view of the landscape out the car window.

"There is speed, and then there is stillness," Terry said. "I think that's a really good description of how this landscape is represented in this work."

Terry, who teaches the second-year studio and landscape painting and printmaking classes in the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design, said being an artist helps her empathize with students who have to turn in projects and put their work on display.

"If I'm going to be critical of students' work, then I have to hold myself accountable to that same level of criticism," she said. "I understand how difficult it is. I mean making the work is one thing, but putting it on display is terrifying — but it's so good for you."

Terry has been drawing since she was a child, but it wasn't until she went to architecture school at Auburn University that she started thinking of herself as an artist. She said she loved the point in a project when she could bring it to life artistically. Although it was unwelcome at the time, one of her architecture professors really encouraged her to paint. During a study abroad trip to Italy, she realized he was right.

"It was a conflict for a long time," Terry said. "It's still a conflict. There are times when I would more identify as an artist, and there are times when I would more identify in the realm of architecture."

Her passion for art and architecture often overlap. She said architecture school refined and honed her skill, helping her to become disciplined and take a rigid and methodical approach to art projects.

"I could go to an amazing building and think, 'Oh, I want to paint this,' or I could see an amazing painting and think, 'Oh I would like to go in a space like this,'" she said.

Although Terry's art has always been about the landscape, these works are a departure from her other recent projects. She said they are all works on paper, which she prefers, and she swapped the paints for pastels and graphite. Terry said drawing allows her to work more intuitively, letting her get closer to the surface of the artwork.

Nearly a year after her road trip, a thief broke a window in Terry's locked car while she was visiting the Prairie Grove Battlefield State Park to document a tree that was part of the project. Her purse was stolen, and it contained several notebooks that she had been using for a writing project, which involved writing a poem from found words. Although police later caught the thief and returned some of her belongings, her notebooks weren't among them.

Terry said she was devastated. A friend who knew about her daily writing practice told her to try to write down whatever she could remember of the poems as a sort of distilled version of that work. Her remembered poem is included in the exhibition.

Admission to the exhibition is free. The exhibition gallery is located on the first floor of Vol Walker Hall, and it is open to the public from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays through Fridays.

Terry's research and resulting work were supported by a Dean's Creative Research and Practice Grant in the Fay Jones School.