MILWAUKEE — In celebration of Black History Month, I wanted to put the spotlight on a local artist whose work you may have seen but you may not be familiar with the artist. Evelyn Patricia Terry said that art saved her life.
At her mother’s urging, Evelyn was pursuing a degree in home economics to ensure she’d get a job. “I was just miserable; I cried all the time thinking about spending my life doing that. So, one day I decided to take a class related to art.,” said Evelyn. One of her teachers, recognizing her talent, said to her “I think you're an artist.”
And that was the beginning of a life spent creating works of art. Evelyn says, “I think, because it is who I was sent here to be, I'm just gonna get up tomorrow and make art and that was in 1985.” To this day, she still spends her days working from her gallery work-space.
I asked about her approach to art, “What I'm doing is usually looking at something and telling a story about what I feel about an issue like marriage, or maybe what's happening on the earth and how people might be able to do better if they recognize that they are a part of it. I think my art is more toward putting into the world ways to navigate life every day so that you can feel good.” Said Evelyn.
One of the many places where Evelyn's art helps people feel good is Northwestern Mutual. Ruth Yasko, Curator of the Northwestern Mutual Art Collection says, “Art in a workplace is very important. It’s just one of the ways that we create a vibrant, dynamic work environment. We are very fortunate to have nine pieces of Evelyn's work in our collection. We have two pieces in our office in New York City. One of the reasons why we love Evelyn's artwork is because it is so dynamic. It's colorful, it's multi-layered. Evelyn has given a lot to the community, and she has mentored many other artists and many people in the community, and community responsibility is also something that we're very proud of here.”
You can check out Evelyn's work here.
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