Art Collecting
Hello Friends,
Happy Tuesday! My artist talk at Ragazza is set for Wednesday, March 22. Yay. Hope you can join us.
Seating will be limited to 30, so please RSVP to reserve your spot. Details in the Eventbrite link below.
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/artist-talk-with-teresa-dirks-at-ragazza-tickets-571784170847
If you have any further questions, please let me know. Happy to help.
All my best,
Teresa
Teresa Dirks
Contemporary Artist
Happy FriYaY Friends!
My new work from the new series: Rainbow In Between is up at Ragazza until April. Drop by. Tell them I sent you. See more images and my Artist Statement below. Thanks for checking it out and for your support. Let me know and I will meet you there!
Sending Love,
Teresa
Artist Statement
This work is a reflection of what has happened to us as a whole, as a collective, over the past six years. It’s about the good, the bad and the beautiful in between. Inspired from a passage in a book by author Monica Bloom, where she wrote about the black and the white and that gray area in between. She communicated how it is so hard to process and unpack that gray middle area. She relayed that, it is our perspective that needs to adjust. This realization brought me to this series, “The Rainbow in Between.” Why not change our attitude to see the gray as a rainbow? This view correlates the anxiety that we have all felt dealing with current affairs, inequities, and social injustices since 2016. It has been a lot. With that said, this series represents the quest and the search for the abundant magic that happens in this world and the celebration of the human spirit and love that surrounds us every day. See and be the shine and shimmer.
Thanks for caring and making the world better,
Teresa Dirks
-Follow me on Instagram and Facebook
P.S. Go Chiefs!
Conscious Love: Artist Collaboration with Huascar Medina, Poet T.L. Sanders, & Teresa Dirks
Our conversation began in June 2019. Jeanne Martin, Shanna Steitz and myself began discussing our then titled show “Love Supreme.” The inspiration we discussed was artwork inspired by John Coltrane’s work and vision regarding his revelation and success over a painful addiction. Shanna had an entire sermon series and sabbatical planned over this monumental piece of music. This all felt right and in line with my current work of including text elevating love and asemic writing. I was electrified about this body of work and research to be done over the next year.
A month or so later, over coffee with the dear Maria Vasquez Boyd, she and I brainstormed. Maria suggested an artist collaboration. Such a brilliant idea Maria, thank you. She recommended several artists. There was work to be done and it was exciting to be in the middle of it.
The two incredible poets, Poet T.L. Sanders and Kansas Poet Laureate, Huascar Medina graciously agreed to write and perform poetry for the show here at the Frank Lloyd Wright, Community Christian Church. After months of discussion, research, writing, painting and collaboration, we were almost ready. Poet Sanders came to my studio at the Livestock Exchange Building. We listen to “A Love Supreme,” loud and deeply reverberating over a gorgeous March afternoon. I painted and created. He constructed, performed and practiced. This moment was transcendental, I imagined much like Coltrane when he wrote his historic riff and powered his way through drug addiction and alcohol. The experience was something outside of myself.
April 2020 was our opening date. Then Covid-19 hit. Our show and collaboration came crashing down along with my momentum and inspiration. It was devastating on so many levels. The reality hit: the frightening unknowns surrounding this pandemic, the suffering, the food insecurity, the loss of jobs and economic hardship, the burdened healthcare workers, the isolation, and then came the horrid deaths. Selling and promoting art felt insensitive while others suffered. Additionally, I made a decision to move out of my studio in the Livestock Exchange Building end of July 2020. I put the work away and I forgot it; 2020 was a sabbatical.
Late June 2021, two years following our first discussion, Jeanne reached out again to see if August and September would work for us. We all agreed. I dug out my art, my heart, my files and my notes and began working on this project again.
For the second time, I ordered postcards, we renamed the show and we discussed a change of tone for the show subject. Instead of “Love Supreme”Jeanne suggested to share how and what kept us together during the pandemic. The family helped me brainstorm and we came up with “Conscious Love” because during this time it became increasingly important to consider how we as individuals during this humanitarian crisis could help others. We had to be deliberate. Intimate touch and being together was out, but how could we share love in another way? It became apparent that love was supreme and we could consciously share that love with our world in other ways. The crisis continued and worsened. We witnessed more brutality and we saw more systemic racism. The world became creative with ways to love our brothers and sisters through protest, donating to others and educating our masses through social media. We stood up and figuratively held hands with those suffering. This was and is a time for our love to be conscious and continually grow. My hopes are many and I plead we all are conscious of how to share our love. Thanks for sharing and thanks for caring.
Join us for:
Conscious Love
Art Collaboration
Paintings by Teresa Dirks
Poetry by Huascar Medina and Poet T.L.Sanders
Inspired by John Coltrane's, "A Love Supreme" and our humanity during the pandemic.
Please join us in celebrating
Conscious Love, August 27, 2021,
5-8 p.m. at the historical
Frank Lloyd Wright church,
Community Christian Church
4601 Main Street
Kansas City, MO, 64112
Poetry performance at 6 and 7 p.m.
More info on Facebook and Instagram at Teresa Dirks' Studio. Or info at
teresadirks@gmail.com & teresadirks.com
My love,
Teresa Dirks
Hello Art Friends,
What a surreal time it has been. For the time being, I have moved my studio back home. Officially at the end of July, I moved out of the lovely historic Livestock Exchange Building. Bittersweet. So fortunate to have had those years developing friendships and my art. Thank you to everyone who has been a part of that wonderful world for 4 amazing years.
For the time being, I will be home thinking and working…
Sending my love,
Teresa
LEB Studio Happy Memory…
Hello!
Thought I would reintroduce myself in honor of Women’s History Month. Yes, I am Teresa Dirks and I am an artist, poet, and painter . . .
Formerly, I was environmental educator and art educator, originally from rural SE Missouri 2 hours north of Memphis TN. Small town gal.
Had some serious challenges early in life, tough but they gave me my strength. BTW I didn’t have anyone around who was an artist. So art as a profession was a foreign concept to me. Somedays it still is honestly. :)
Luckily, I did have music along the way. Piano, percussion and guitar. And again, luckily I grew up around seamstresses, quilters, gardeners, and farmers, I learned to love nature, nurture, growing and making. This made me creative. Later as an adult, I found art and painting. Again lucky.
One moment in particular as an adult, on a trip to the STL Museum, I saw my first Morris Louis. I fell in love with art. I can’t really put to words what I felt. The sensation was life altering. Monumental moment.
Brief Background:
Dave and I lived in a geodesic dome we built. We raised a beautiful family . . . for 30 plus years on a farm only 30 minutes from the Mississippi River. The delta and horizon helped to define my work along with other things. The horizon is something we all share. This joins us together. More about that later.
As an adult and mother, I went back to school and studied English and Art. I have a BA in Creative Writing emphasis in Poetry and a Minor in Art. Later I went back for my Masters to teach Art.
In 2010, we had the opportunity to move close to KC and my first granddaughter. We jumped on it. We were in Warrensburg and this sparked opportunities. The prestigious MO50 and the MAC award. Things started to get easier. Five years ago, we moved to KC and two years ago I moved into my first “out of the home” studio. My work and life has grown because of the vibrant and giving artist community here in KC. I am so grateful! KC changed my experience entirely. Thank you.
Now about my art and that process . . .
No matter who you are or where you live, you have a horizon, a sunset, a connection to humanity that each individual has experienced. This is a string or connection that ties us together. My work is an abstraction of that concept and connection. We are all interwoven in humanity. Interconnected. I feel as we merge into this new realm of technology and political unrest it is vital to make those connections. It is a desire for unity and sense of community.
As I said I fell in love with the Morris Louis’, Alpha Tau, and the colorfield movement. It profoundly directed my work. So why am I drawn to Louis’ work? As I mentioned, I am also a poet. I studied Walden and transcendentalism. I love the brevity and contemplation of modern poetry. The succinctness! This is what my art is about. It is at its simple core. I love the ability to break something down to its essence, whether that is a painting of a moment or a poem of a single experience. It is the essence! It is humanity. And I want to share that essence of unity with my audience.
Thanks for listening!
Xoxox,
Teresa
Delighted to be represented online by UGallery. View my portfolio and acquire my art work here: https://www.ugallery.com/Artist/Teresa-Dirks
You won Best of Houzz 2016!
Exciting news from Houzz!
Hi Teresa Dirks' Art and congratulations,
We're writing to let you know that you've been voted by the Houzz community as a winner of our Best of Houzz 2016 award! You can read the full press release here.
Your work won in the Design category, as your portfolio includes some of the most popular images on Houzz in 2015. We have already placed a "Best of Houzz 2016" winner badge on your Houzz profile page; visit your profile page (http://www.houzz.com/pro/teresadirksart) to see it.