AGP Member Spotlight: Rig Terrell

Rig works on The Coral Reef

The Art Guild of Pacifica is a dynamic collection of people that are rich in capabilities, artistic experience, teamwork, and most of all talent.  There is so much talent that I wish I could blog about every single AGP member all at once.  I’ll have to settle for one member at a time, this time focusing on artist Rig Terrell.

If I had to apply three words to Rig’s art, I would use scale, physicality, and transformation.

Growing up in rural Connecticut, Rig Terrell’s artistic beginnings were strongly influenced by his mother, who has a degree in Fine Arts. While she could be found “downstairs” coaxing form out of clay, so could her children, in secret, where they squished noses and added their own “artistic” tweaks to her work when she wasn’t looking. As a child, Rig looked in unconventional places around town to find the treasures he used to make art.  Then, as a young artist, he felt limited by painting, and gravitated quickly to sculpture, which he considered a full-bodied approach to creativity.

Appreciating Scale

Carrying over themes from his childhood, Rig strives “to integrate his art with daily living,” informing it and consequently reflecting what’s happening in his life.  He builds furniture for a living, which requires creativity, but more it demands employment of his entire body.  For this reason, scale is of particular importance to Rig.  He prefers to create large objects, which is made evident in the latest piece he’s done for “Live & Current” at Oceana Gallery.  He wants to make art using his entire body, as well, much in the way he lives, surfs, and builds.  In fact, physicality plays a big role in the way Rig perceives art.  For example, most paintings are hung at eye level, which is coincidentally in line with the head. Thus, taking in or making a painting becomes a cerebral or thought provoking endeavor.  Likewise, the torso is associated with the heart and heart felt efforts toward or responses to art.  And last, the feet are associated with stability, a critical part of creating large scale art.

Raw Materials

Rig still uses commonplace items as raw materials.  You’ll see this in his latest piece. It’s made of used plastic bottles, but it differs from assemblage, Rig states, because he does not allow the items to stand as is.  Rather, when they are used as raw materials they are completely transformed.  Plastic bottles are a favorite because of the dichotomy they suggest.  They are the product of automation and from start to finish require no human handling in their creation.  However, Rig transforms them through hand-crafting, and they become a part of something unexpected.

Rig & Jada, Gallery Mascott

Rig has been a member of AGP for eight years, and has enjoyed a studio at the Sanchez Art Center for the same amount of time.  His latest ambition is to have a studio workshop that isn’t electrified. He wants to work with his hands and hand tools exclusively, and use resources only from nature utilizing natural light when it’s available. In this way, he’ll truly test his meddle while gaining a greater appreciation for the resources he uses.

The Art Guild of Pacifica’s “Live & Current” show, where you can see Rig’s completed sphere, celebrates its opening tonight, which is Friday, April 17, 2012 at Oceana Gallery from 7pm to 9pm.  Rig is on the Oceana Gallery committee and played a big part in conceiving and facilitating the “Live & Current” show within a show.

If you’re a member of the Art Guild of Pacifica and would like to see your creative endeavors included in the AGP Blog, feel free to blog it yourself (any member can be linked up to do so by reaching out to Michael Risenhoover), or let us know and we’ll get you blogged as soon as we can!

Blogged by Donna L. Faber

AGP Secretary

donnalouisefaber.com